James Moore's Blog, page 89

Do You Really Need Music Distribution?

Ever since it became clear that major record labels were suffering a slow demise, folks in bands and industry people have been saying if you want a career in music you should start a distribution company. Unfortunately in the day and age dominated by CD Baby and Tunecore it seems like distribution isn’t going to matter anyway – unless it’s from a major – and even then only if you are one of their major artists. So if you want big league distribution I can tell you right now – it’s not going to happen – I’m sorry. And no – consignment doesn’t really work either.

Her’s the thing that countless independent musicians have to learn – yes it is relatively easy to get onto The Orchard or RED or something like that. I’m not discounting the work that comes from that, but what I can tell you is that these massive distribution companies are going to do very little to actually help your average musician or label. Why? Because their marketing teams are only so big and they can only take on so much work. Sure they can facilitate the ASCAP process and they can maybe get you into a few webstores that CD Baby and Tunecore don’t have access to – but in the long run, unless you can prove that your product is generating literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue you can kiss any sort of physical distribution (The only kin that really matters anymore) good bye.

What does this mean for you then? Well – to put it simply – it means that if you sign with a major distributor and aren’t expecting to break the Billboard charts then you are simply paying more for a product that CD Baby or Tunecore could deliver much more cheaply. On an independent guerilla marketing level the odds are that you are never going to be making that much money off of CD sales. At least not to the point that there is real incentive for those in power to get you major distribution in record stores. It also means that if you really do want distribution then the way to go is probably through a truly independent company – and even then – only one you really trust.

In time like this you need to remember that beloved quote of ours here at IMP, “Everyone is full of crap, until they are not” In other words – maybe you send off a bunch of product to an independent distribution company – but until you see pictures of your stuff on record store shelves, and until you see actual sales being generated from those store placements you shouldn’t really trust them. It’s the reason that CD Baby is so much better as an overall distributor – you can rely on it, because it is I known company with a valuable reputation to uphold and a clear and universal product. Unlike many of its peers it actually delivers. While I don’t have as much experience with Tunecore – many of the same ideas hold true.

Now I’m not trying to take a potshot at The Orchard or any other major (Or independent owned by a major) distribution company and I sincerely apologize if I come off as such. What I’m trying to say rather is that being on one of these companies is not helpful if you are not a massive seller and the odds are you are not, and never will be a massive seller. Should you be mad about this? Not really. These companies never really intended to cater to the little guy – if the little guy chooses to sign on then so be it – but it’s probably not going to help them in the long run. That’s not an indictment of any one company but rather the nature of the music industry as a whole.

What matters more than distribution is selling your own stuff directly to the fans. Sure CD Baby is great – but you know what doesn’t take a cut out of your bands profit? Selling stuff straight from your webstore baby! You might be struggling with mainstream coverage and getting the attention that you feel you deserve and you have to pay for these things – why pay to also get your CD’s sold? Yes your stuff should be on everything that CD Baby provides but moreover you should also be directing fans to your own webstore – and odds are, assuming you have enough badass merch, once they are there they won’t be able to keep themselves from buying some of the other cool stuff that you have on sale!

In conclusion – if you need a big league distributor then you will know because by that point you will have a manager who can hook that sort of thing up. At present though just do it yourself. As a matter of fact – you might not even NEED CD Baby. Sure it can help sometimes, but it also can detract from fans buying straight from your own webstore. You need to weigh these options and consider how powerful your social media presence is before joining one of these programs. Again – I’m not talking them down, but if you can generate just as much income working on your own without a million affiliate programs… then why even bother? Re-organizing your marketing strategy as a ‘you-centric’ approach with minimal distribution outside of your own webstore might very well be the future!

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 Concept Albums Help Targeted Marketing

Recently on this blog we talked about how hyper targeting is almost always going to be more effective than trying to have a diverse sound that could appeal to anybody. Today I wanted to talk about something that can help to facilitate angular marketing – and unlike many of the business oriented solutions offered on this site, this one is purely musical. So what is this magical thing that can help make your music more fascinating almost by default – regardless of genre? I can guarantee you know and love at least a few takes on it already – I’m talking, of course about concept albums.

Concept albums are some of the most resonant across the ages, especially for bands that specialize in niche marketing. As a matter of fact, this has been the case for a long time now. For example – The Who were able to use concept albums like Tommy and Quadrophenia to give their career new life after churning out hits in the 60s. Meanwhile Roger Waters has been able to take Pink Floyd’s The Wall and turn brainy prog rock into one of the most successful tours of all time. On a more recent note My Chemical Romance’s Welcome To The Black Parade remains one of the most influential albums of the twenty first century. This doesn’t even touch on the overwhelming triumph that is Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly.

In a way this should seem obvious. I mean, before To Pimp A Butterfly when was the last time that an entire album received massive praise, and not just because it had good singles? I’m not trying to take away from his achievement, but Kendrick Lamar was merely tapping into something that has worked for years. An album like To Pimp A Butterfly is a stunning artistic achievement because, while yes there are good songs, it also has a more powerful overarching message. This becomes even more important when you realize that concept albums are much more likely to appeal to self identified ‘music people’ and as we’ve discussed before – ‘music people’ are more likely to be superfans and the superfans spend the most money. In other words, the more superfans you have the more money you are going to make.

Now – I know that concept albums aren’t easy to write – I’ve written a couple myself. It’s hard to tie everything together and create something that resonates across every track. That being said – in the end it is almost always worth it. The connected nature of the concept record and the overarching power encourages repeat listens in order to properly understand it. Of course – if your music is really that good, then repeat listens are only going to help bring people deeper into the music and help to generate new levels of fandom. Again – To Pimp A Butterfly is one of the most critically acclaimed albums of all time and it is almost 80 minutes long. In a world where everyone seems to be claiming that singles are where it’s at – Lamar, and other concept album writers are proving that perhaps the true financial benefit comes from the brainiest and most immersive musical experience possible.

Of course Kendrick Lamar was already hugely successful before To Pimp A Butterfly, other artists though have been able to use concept records in order to shape their careers, renew their popularity, or merely just kick off their careers with a band. A great example of this is Freak Out! the first Mothers of Invention album and the record that essentially kick started Frank Zappa’s career as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Other artists like Neil Young have used concept records later in their career to invoke new interest – as Neil did on his latest record The Monsanto Years an album that has generated more press than anything he has done in years.

Now you might be saying ‘my band writes singles, we want to be hitmakers! Well – hitmakers write concept records too. Asides from the much discussed To Pimp A Butterfly it’s hard to deny that the all time classic Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band isn’t a concept album. If you dig through the archives of pop history and try to understand albums as an art form then it becomes fairly clear that a lot of your musical heroes, including folks like Prince and Michael Jackson have worked on records that they might consider to be concept albums.

What does this mean for you though as the average independent musician? Simply that the brainier our work gets the more angular its appeal will become, but the more angular its appeal is the more it will be able to appeal to fans who will actually spend money on your music. Concept albums are much more likely to get into tastemaker publications and they are much more likely to get casual fans to click ‘play’ especially if the ideas are enticing. Am I saying you need to write a concept album to be popular? No. But if you want at least some buzz almost guaranteed then writing a concept album may be the way to go.

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

The post Why Concept Albums Help Targeted Marketing appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

What Indie Bands Don’t Understand About Niche Marketing

It might seem initially that creating a hyper targeted product is only going to limit the amount of fans you have access to, but the more time that I spend in the music industry the more I realize that this is in fact the only way to go. It was a weird realization to have – that for example the Mongolian Folk Metal band I manage, Tengger Cavalry, was doing much better than a many death metal bands I know with a broader target demographic. Many a manager or label executive can tell you that your band shouldn’t be trying to be everything to everyone but it’s hard to actually learn this lesson without seeing it firsthand.

It might seem counter-intuitive then that I try to explain this to you in an article then – but I think what really matters beyond that realization is the implications of it. It shows us that in the modern music industry we can still sell product but it has to be to super targeted markets. It also shows us that people aren’t quite as fickle as some might want you to believe. In fact – brand loyalty is more important than ever because now it relies purely on word of mouth. Part of why it’s important to get a ‘critical mass’ PR campaign is that after a point the PR becomes self sustaining, people start to come to you for press and not the other way around. As it happens – it seems that the only way to reliably set up a word of mouth campaign is by having targeted audiences.

Why is this? Well – it should be fairly obvious if you belong to any sort of niche or underground scene. A lot of these bands know exactly who they are marketing to – even if they don’t really admit it. For example, Noisem, whose bassist is currently trying to take a nap on my couch (And criticizing my old grindcore band) have managed to cultivate a very specific audience largely through their distinct dedication to the scene. As far as I can tell there is no grander scheme beyond ‘playing with bands that work with us and playing at appropriate venues’ but nevertheless this has allowed them to get a hyper dedicated fanbase of young death metal fanatics and the word of mouth buzz has gotten to the point that the band gets placements on major websites with minimal PR.

Cultivating a distinct image and role for your band in any scene is not – by nature – a hard thing to do. Unfortunately though it’s also something that many bands are trying to hook up in obvious ways. If you want to go the obvious route though it’s rarely going to work unless you are among the best of the best. Other ways to generate word of mouth come through crazy marketing stunts (Which rarely pay off in the long run) or, as I mentioned before, massive PR pushes. The thing is though – PR campaigns have to be done properly and with the right company and product. Sometimes you can get a ton of press, but if things aren’t resonating properly then organic reach just won’t happen. That’s fine though – it just means that in the future you need to tweak your approach.

How does this tie into angular marketing though? Well simply because if your product is unique enough people will talk about it. That’s why someone like Tengger Cavalry can generate so much buzz – because seriously, how many Mongolian folk metal bands are there? More than you’d expect to be sure – but still not a whole hell of a lot. It’s the same with someone like former IMP client Nic Nassuet who has managed to win a bunch of awards simply by selling a product that few others provide and services a hyper targeted niche. Again – people don’t care until you make them care, and if you genre tag alone makes people go “Oh, that’s interesting” then you’re already off to a good start.

What I’ve noticed about hyper targeted niche’s is that rarely does it happen by someone writing down a bunch of genre tags and going from there and if does, you can usually tell. Usually it’s an organic thing, something that feels right for the artist. If you’re just throwing together adjectives to figure out what kind of music will be profitable you’re going to get nowhere. Instead you need to emulate a band like The Aristocrats who managed to take a unique set of musical backgrounds and turn it into something that is truly special.

Finding a tiny niche isn’t a easy thing to do – but it will always pay off. Being a part of a scene is crucial because it helps bring you into a community, but from there you need to find an even tighter corner to dominate. In a world where minimal pay is guaranteed we need to give people every reason to want to purchase from you. Word of mouth is the way forward in 2016 and the deeper you delve the more you can make – people pay attention to weird things and if you can cause heads to turn then you know you are on the right track.

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

The post What Indie Bands Don’t Understand About Niche Marketing appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Soundcloud Isn’t Going Anywhere – But Streaming Still Sucks

We’ve all seen the news, we’ve all had our collective panic, but don’t worry – Soundcloud isn’t going anywhere. I know that Fact Magazine report was concerning and I know that they are indeed losing money. But here’s the thing – music industry folks are – as usual – being needlessly alarmist. There is no apocalypse for streaming, at least none that we haven’t already known about for a good long while. Streaming has always been a bit of a weird business model and guess what – even the giant itself – Spotify – has lost $200 million since its inception. The point being – these are young companies with massive user bases, and in most cases, young companies with massive userbases LOSE MONEY. There is limitless marketing potential here – it’s just a matter of capitalizing on it.

Now it might be weird to call Soundcloud a young company since it has become such an industry mainstay. After all they have been around since 2007 – firmly the middle of the Web 2.0 era. They have managed to attract some massive financial interests though because they seem to be hinting at a brighter future for the music industry. Of course – to make this work any streaming service is going to need a lot of potential users to make any money. For someone like Spotify they pay out 70% of their incoming revenue to artists meaning that they don’t have a lot of money to keep the company running. Of course as THIS Cracked article points out – a lot of the main investors in these services are labels anyway – so their biggest expense is essentially paying their own salaries.

At the end of the day – streaming really isn’t a sustainable model while people are transitioning, and we honestly can’t say whether or not it will be sustainable in the long term. What we can say though is that as more money comes in then streaming services will be able to eventually post a profit. Now yes – these services do lose a lot of money, some of the bigger companies have especially lavish offices, a far cry from their vaguely anarchistic punk rock roots. I’m not saying that Soundcloud and Spotify are doing everything right – but I am saying that they are early movers in a movement that we still don’t know will work. I mean – personally I think it might be the only way forward to make money off of recorded music (If it’s still possible) – but who knows.

Part of the issue is, as I have written about in the past, it seems more and more like in the twenty first century that nobody will really be making money off of recorded music. Which is unfortunate to say the least, but necessity is the mother of invention. There are other ways of making money, things that we’ve talked about and which it is not the place of this particular article to get in to. What I will say though is that we need to embrace options for revenue in the music industry. Licensing and unique merchandise options are the future career builders for musicians – not streaming.

So yes – in the long run Spotify and Soundcloud might actually end up becoming profitable companies but I doubt they will be the future of the business. The way ASCAP and the FCC run makes internet radio oriented services basically unfeasible beyond a certain size. That’s one of those brutal realities I doubt we will ever to fully circumvent. Streaming is a necessity in a world where music has no physical form but it is not a path to freedom – rather one that will only guide us to a slightly slower, annihilation. So if you have all your eggs in that particular basket… I’m sorry.

We’re not in a world where recorded music can really do have any merit beyond essentially advertising anymore. The streaming structure is kind of doomed – as brutal as it may sound. That doesn’t mean Soundcloud is going under their. Gain – when you have hundreds of millions of users you can adapt. There are a ton of exciting opportunities for these streaming services to expand – the question is just whether or not they will be willing to go beyond the music. Maybe these services will end up profiting – but more likely they will end up propped up by labels kind of like they are now.

There is a way forward, and new companies lose money all the the time – especially ones that require massive amounts of employees as Spotify and Soundcloud often do. That doesn’t mean these services are disappearing anytime soon. They will still attract investors as long as they have a massive userbase. The main streaming services are all immense, they have tons of followers and thousands of users – companies like that don’t just go underwater. Look at MySpace for example and all the rebrandings that site has had. Unlike MySpace though, streaming has yet to be replaced by something better and until then these sites are going to reign.

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

The post Soundcloud Isn’t Going Anywhere – But Streaming Still Sucks appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

You’re Not Radio Friendly (And That’s Okay)

Radio play is one of those weird things that doesn’t really impact the modern industry but looks really amazing on your musicians resume. Billboard has basically come out and said that radio play doesn’t impact album sales – but if it didn’t profit artists to some degree, then labels wouldn’t be pouring millions into it right? Of course – you probably don’t have the money to get radio play, not yet at least. However you might be asking the perennial question, “If I keep getting positive reviews, why is it impossible for me to get radio play?” Or perhaps more specifically, “What is the difference between critical acclaim and being radio friendly?” This is a rabbit hole that goes deep and dark – and while this article will almost certainly require a follow up – here’s a few first steps.

One of the most important things that you need to realize is that the people who run radio stations and the people who write for top notch music websites have almost no overlap. While there definitely are some specialty shows out there (More on that later) the fact that I write for some of the biggest music websites in the world means nothing to a lot of these radio people. In all honest I know like two, and in years of work could MAYBE get airplay on one of their shows. The point being – it’s a totally separate universe. I’ve always felt that part of this is because kids who want to be music writers are really big music nerds with a vast knowledge of music whilst kids who want to be DJ’s actually got laid in high school and listened to popular music – they simply don’t care about the underground stuff. And given the nature of radio – why should they?

What does this mean for you though as an independent musician? Simply that if you’re not willing to pay an extravagant amount for a radio placement person you can pretty much kiss regular radio play good bye. The fact of the matter is that traditional radio, being such a publicly available format, is essentially forced to play lowest common denominator stuff most of the time if they want to keep having advertisers. That’s why rock stations have been playing the same 200 rock songs since 1984. College radio is no different since more and more now college aged kids are just listening to music on Spotify or other streaming services. Sure a new band breaks in here and there – but that is rarely ever the focus of these stations – and radio people know that most people aren’t listening to the radio for new music anyway.

But what about the people that are? Well – there are a handful of specialty shows for that. They are few and far between and probably overwhelmed with requests – much like people like me are in regards to music writing. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be reaching out to them – a placement on a solid independent radio show can, if nothing else, get you some of that sweet, sweet ASCAP money. There is hope though, radio has traditionally lagged behind the rest of the music industry, but now with the rise of podcasts and a general awareness of niche marketing satellite radio and independent stations are helping make radio relevant again. Why? Simply because radio dudes are figuring out what journalists knew a decade ago – if you create hyper targeted content people will come and in a world where cars are almost universally dominated by AUX cables this is going to be important for broadcast media to survive. One of the fundamental rules of entertainment is shining through – if you can create interesting content after a point people will pay attention.

I think that this starts to show us the essential difference between critical acclaim and being radio friendly. Critical acclaim can happen for anybody because the content is sold on the intelligence and quality of the writing about the music as much as it is about the music being covered. To get critical acclaim you just need to impress individual writers who are used to spending time with albums to really understand them. Obviously this is no mean feat – but I think you get what I’m saying. Radio friendly music needs to grab the listener right away and keep them on the channel so they can get ratings an sell advertisements for more money. Unlike on a record, radio friendly music can’t expect the listener to replay a song four or five times in order to properly understand the music. In other words radio friendly music requires instant pleasure, and the odds are if your music is brainy, alternative or just generally outside the norm you are going to have a very hard time getting any, even with a placement person.

That’s the crux of it really – to get any sort of reliable radio play you need to hire a placement person. You know how early on in this blog I emphasized how it’s practically impossible to get a decent amount of press on your own? Well with radio there are fewer outlets and higher demand – it should be pretty obvious what this means. Like how we always say no one cares until you make them care – radio people are even harder to impress. Can you develop good relationships with a handful of hardworking radio folks to build a better tomorrow? Yes. But will it be at all easy or take a realistic amount of effort? Not really.

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That’s why I rarely try to get any sort of radio coverage for bands I work with – they sound too weird and ‘out there’ for it to make any sense. In the end – it makes a minimal impact anyway – because like I said, most ‘plugged in’ people are getting new music from streaming services. So even if I can get groups I work with to open for massive bands  or in massive sites I probably will never get real radio play because that’s a totally different thing. If a radio opportunity comes up every now and then, then by all means take it – but don’t be upset when radio stations don’t play you. In some ways it almost works out to a compliment. Radio is a fickle thing that in the end without massive support it won’t affect your bottom line. Odds are no matter what you do, you won’t be radio friendly – don’t worry about it. Attack niche stations that don’t care and proceed to make the big ones regret not playing you earlier on.

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

The post You’re Not Radio Friendly (And That’s Okay) appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

College Advice For The Teenage Independent Musician

“Mom, Dad, I want to study music” the dreaded words that many a young musician speaks to their parents and leads to inevitable months of insanity and stress from all parties in an already incredibly stressful time in life. You might feel like going to college to study music will teach you a lot more about the art form and the industry industry as a whole allowing you to grow as a performer and businessman. Meanwhile – your parents might wonder if you have lost your mind. They want successful children so that they can have grandkids and stuff – it’s some sort of biological imperative. I’m here to say your parents are right… sort of, and if your parents are anything like mine then it’s the ‘sort of’ that is going to drive them really crazy.

Here’s my advice, advice I wish I had been exposed to when I was considering colleges. You probably don’t need to go to college. If you’re serious about it take at least a year off and reflect on what you really want to do in the music industry. Get a real job if you have to but spend the time creating as much music as possible, reaching out to other people and growing your network. Set up goals and then carry them out. Try and go on tour and work with higher level bands. Expand your resume and consider where you’re really trying to take this whole music thing. The odds are that what you would be getting from a music degree aren’t what you would really want. If you want to go study music theory and musicology read a book, if you want a career placement program go to shows and network, and if you want an immersive experience then just go on the road.

The point I’m trying to make is that for most of this stuff you don’t need a degree, and for the stuff you would need a degree for (Mostly legal and contractual obligations) you probably wouldn’t be handling personally anyway. There’s a reason we have CPA’s and lawyers. Most people who become music majors at college who were kids in rock bands in high school don’t really know what they want from that kind of program. If you spent years studying classical music then yeah, you probably should study music in a formal setting, but if you just want to make a living in independent popular music there are no programs that really cater to that, for a few surprisingly simple and easily identifiable reasons.

The thing is – there are no real degrees for independent music. I mean yes – there are music industry degrees that will help, but even those programs will make it clear they are not teaching you anything you couldn’t learn yourself. Most of the people who have jobs in the industry who have relevant degrees learned a lot more from their internships and their own separate roles in the industry rather than anything they were taught in classroom. This is for a variety of reasons, but mainly because not only is independent music a very unstable and borderline illegal thing, but also that it rarely ever pays the bills. Add in the fact that the only thing that would really help you as a label CEO is a business degree and you will easily find yourself a a point where its hard to justify any sort of music degree. Hell – even if you want to be a musician you probably want to spend those vital late teen and early 20s years touring heavily, taking private lessons and generally getting your name out there.

We are increasingly living in an America where people are seeing through the lies of the university system and in an industry largely based off of freelance culture it seems that now more than ever taking the time for yourself to become a musician is the most viable path. That being said – you need to actually y’know, take the time and do it. You’re not just going to become a musician by calling yourself one. Rather – you need to step up and embrace the difficulties that being a musician entails and spend every day working hard, networking and practicing in order to live out your dreams. This isn’t the kind of thing that you can just up and do. As a matter of fact I can guarantee that the work that goes into being a professional musician would require significantly more work than going to college.

Now obviously your parents are going to need more evidence for this than some asshole on the internet who dropped out of college and is now living his dream. So you need to go out and achieve at least something before you up and leave. You need to be able to show them that you have accomplished things, big things, and it’s only by pursuing this full time that you will be able to grow your personal brand. This isn’t an easy thing to do – but parents mainly want their children to succeed and be happy – and if you can prove concretely that music can help you do that – then you should if you want any hope of them letting you follow your dream.

Essentially – if you want to make a living in an industry that exists outside of the system then you need to exist outside of the system too. I’m not saying college is evil – I’m certainly considering going back for some business classes at some point, but the fact of the matter is that college is not going to help you start off your career, instead it is going to leave you years behind many of your peers. I know this because I consider my one year of college to have been something of a setback, I don’t regret it – but I know I could have spent the time better. So if you’re already doing good stuff in your scene and you think that soon it will be fiscally viable, then perhaps now is the time to say ‘Screw it’ and jump off the deep 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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Sci-Fi or Die: Getting Ready For Vektor’s Terminal Redux

“Do you want to hear the new record dude?” I take a breath – a little bit stunned. Vektor are about to play me the final mix of their hotly anticipated upcoming record, Terminal Redux due to drop in late February. Vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dave Disanto passes me a beer, lead stringsmith Erik Nelson presses play and we’re off. While this article isn’t meant to function as a review of the album – I will say this, it’s damn good and a logical next step for one of the most exciting bands in the thrash scene today. Currently on tour with Voivod and Eight Bells the space thrashers are having the time of their lives conquering the East Coast with blood thirsty aplomb.

One thing that struck me about listening to the record with the band was not only that it was excellent – but also the enthusiasm that the band members showed. Blake Anderson air drummed his way through his parts, Erik enthusiastically played air guitar for his flashiest solos – an aspect of the music he’s almost entirely taken control of on this release since, as Dave put it, “I’m tired of singing and soloing” Meanwhile Frank Chin isn’t afraid to occasionally pipe in and sing one of his bass lines. It’s been five years since their last album, the almighty Outer Isolation a record that still sounds ahead of its time. Despite this, and despite the continued popularity of the band in this recording hiatus a lot of punters forgot exactly why we all fell so deeply in love with this group in the first place. Vektor knew that they needed an absolute beast of an album if they wanted to come back and triumph – and now they have.

Simply put – Vektor are a band who are not to be messed with. Their sound is totally unique, their approach surprisingly accessible, their potential limitless and they know it. Of course, they’re humble about it but when hanging out with them you do get a sense of understated confidence from the band. This whole ‘being a space thrash band’ thing has worked out on two previous albums and seen them go all around the world, it seems that the next record is only going to add to the legacy and help to make things even more exciting. Beyond that – I think it’s hard to ignore the compositional achievement that Terminal Redux represents – a concept record through and through this is a proggy masterpiece that you can’t help but admire – taking the hyper speed genius hinted at on previous records to a whole new level.

Somewhere on the New Jersey Turnpike on a long ride to Philadelphia Dave decided to start explaining the concept behind Terminal Redux – and while I’m not too keen to share the details, I can say this – the fusion found between the music and the concept is stunning. The steps forward taken by Vektor on this record speaks to something much larger. The album reflects on a sort of inner suffering whilst simultaneously addressing larger concepts that are relevant to the entire human condition. For a long time Vektor was just ‘that wacky thrash band who sing about space’ to so many people – but now they have transcended previous limitations and started to become lords of a genre they have started to craft in their own image.

Few bands these days have managed to cultivate an aesthetic and a sound as unique as Vektors – and there are fewer still who actually manage to fit this into the mold of older music and be as accessible as Vektor somehow manage to be. This is a band who worship Voivod, and then managed to push that unique sound so much further and make it wholly their own. Despite their self proclaimed weirdness they still fit in the thrash polemic. Even their lifestyles reflect the dream crafted by bands like Nuclear Assault and DRI. For example, Dave was recently arrested for throwing a beer at a Christian protester, and the band espouses a love of alcohol matched only by the old thrash lords. While many might associate Vektor with Voivod (And Vektor certainly love the comparison) it almost feels like Vektor have the potential to become something much larger – even if they are eviller, faster and more technical.

Despite the sheer agony of the music industry in the modern age – Vektor seem to take it all with a smile. Dave sports a tattoo stating the bands motto, ‘Sci-Fi or Die’ and Blake has a fondness for staring intently at random audience members. The dudes embrace tour life – every stop sees them hugging old friends and making new ones. When I first met the band I was just a teenager and was regularly impressed by their groupie stories, and insane live performances. Like I said, this is a band who fulfill the promise of thrash on every level. They love to trade old war stories, especially with their heroes in Voivod and eagerly embrace every new challenge. Sure – the dudes are starting to grow up, hell, Eric is having a kid later this year, but one gets the impression that even that won’t stop these avant garde thrashers.

That’s not what really makes Vektor special though. They aren’t just a band who are playing thrash metal and doing it in an exciting new way – no – this is a band who are pushing the limits of a genre that many thought as played out. When the whole ‘rethrash’ movement happened thousands claimed that the genre was done and labeled it derivative. They said that thrash had become silly and that it was for all intents and purposes dead. Then Vektor came along and changed the game decisively in a way that none of their peers could ever emulate. I write this a few hours before they go on at Underground Arts – an appropriately grim venue in South Philly – and wonder what will happen next. Soon fans will be queuing up outside and getting ready to go crazy for the music they love, but for now all we can do is wait, and embrace our own outer isolation.

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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Big Kids in the Music Industry – How To Reach The Next Level

Remember when you were a kid and you’d go out on the playground at recess to play with your friends? Remember how the big kids would be around and use words you didn’t understand and laugh at jokes you thought you would never get? Remember wondering what it would be like to get to play with them? You knew that maybe know you weren’t cool enough to roll with them, but one day you would be. One thing I’ve slowly started to learn as I become more independent in the music industry is that very few people are ready to play with the big kids. If you’re lucky someone will reach down a helping hand and try to bring you up to the big kid level – but if you’re not ready for it when you try and take the plunge then you might have ended you career before it ever began.

Now I’m not saying it’s bad to not be a big kid. If you just want to book at a couple of small venues and have a few touring bands come through every once in a while that’s fine. But be aware that even if the touring bands get progressively bigger it’s unlikely that you are going to ever start moving up to the next level. In my experience things happen in fits and bursts. You get a phone call and then suddenly you’re batting in the next league up, it’s not a gradual growth but rather a staircase. Some people are happy with being on a lower level – music is stressful – there are a lot of reasons to stay where you’re at. The thing is – when someone reaches out to give you an opportunity that takes you to the next level you need to follow the golden rule of freelancing – under-promise and over deliver. Otherwise – you will go down as just another poser.

The thing is – the big kids talk amongst each other. There is a reason that they are a hyper exclusive super limited club. They interact on a extremely personal level because there’s only a handful of them – a music illuminati if you will. Each member of this group has friends on their own level and then a few above them who they try to work more with and a few below the who they are trying to bring up. Yet with each level in the music industry things get exponentially smaller. Every time you move up you find that there are even bigger kids who you have to deal with – you will never be at the top, but you need to be able to deal with people from all levels of the industry to proceed.

It’s hard to quantify what a ‘big kid’ is but you know that you have a chance of becoming one when someone makes the offer. Someone might not say it using this particular metaphor, but if you’re lucky they will try and bring you up to their level because you did something to impress them. It’s important to remember though – the higher the level, the higher the stakes. When you realize that babies are being fed with your work and that some of these people are full time musicians if you just want to screw around and have fun with your buddies then you are doomed to failure. The music industry is a place where few qualifications are quantifiable and everyone is trying to oversell themselves – if you aren’t ready to deliver then it’s going to be hard for you, not only to find regular work but also to establish a reliable reputation.

Another important thing to realize is that the big kids don’t expect you to be able to be a big kid. Much like in kindergarten – even if the first graders let you play with them, if you fall over and started crying they have no problem leaving you in the dirt. Everyone, myself included has had hundreds if not thousands of people flake out on them when given the opportunity of a lifetime. People don’t want to work – they want stuff to come easily. You need to spend years dogging big boys for them to take you seriously. You need to prove yourself. As I have said in many other articles, you don’t need to ask for permission, you need to do stuff. Yet – when the time comes to go to the next level you need to make sure that you know how to deliver – because big kids have no time to mess around.

The fundamental issue of the independent music industry is that a lot of it is held together by amateurs and those amateurs don’t understand how hard this makes it for the professionals. If you want to keep doing stuff, and then eventually make a little scratch off of it you need to prove that you are reliable as they come and can answer emails on time, act politely in social situations, know how to admit your screw ups (And then trying to fix them) and not make people angry with your opinions. These are all key elements of being a big boy. In other words – if you want to make money doing music you can’t be an immature kid, you have to take responsibility and move forward with everyone.

See – here’s the thing, a lot of this music industry stuff doesn’t stem from being smart – it stems from being a freaking adult. It stems from being able to do what is right, even when it would be so much easier to do what is wrong. It stems frmo having honor and being willing to stand up for what is right. This might sound romantic, but remember all these music industry people are artists at their core – the drama, the over the topness, all of it appeals to them. You need to stand up as someone who deserves to be here, and grow the fuck u, so when the time comes to play with the big boys you don’t mess it up.

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 Buying Facebook Likes Is A Necessary Evil

One of the things that people regularly forget about in this industry is that despite the alleged democracy of the internet a lot of stuff is like it was back in the day when you needed to pay for magazine ads you also need to pay for Facebook advertising. I know that just a few years ago no one had to pay for ads and that was awesome, and I know that if you’re a DIY band it’s kind of lame to do that. So yes, there needs to be a discussion about the morality, but I think that a lot of your favorite DIY bands form back in the day were willing to get advertisements in the right places – and Facebook guarantees that much at least. Furthermore, guess what? People [probably aren’t going to listen if you don’t put yourself out there and put money into it. As much as PR helps, paid advertising needs to be a part of your campaign strategy, whether you like it or not.

A crucial thing to realize is that while organic reach is good and valuable, people in power are inevitably going to judge your Facebook page by how many likes you have. That’s a pretty standard thing to do in my experience, for no other reason than that pretty much everyone interested in music has a Facebook, for obvious reasons, and Facebook likes are a readily available, easily quantifiable metric which we can use to judge the popularity and marketability of a band. That doesn’t mean it’s fair, or even remotely correct – but it does mean that you need to invest in it in order to get people paying attention.

It’s a weird thing to think about – that you essentially need to buy likes in order to attract organic ones, but that’s the weird cycle that we’ve found ourselves locked into. The marketing people at Facebook are geniuses. What you need to realize is that the new music industry funnels most of the money to only a handful of people – largely because these days there’s only a handful of people worth working with. It doesn’t make sense to pay for advertising on most independent news outlets when you know you can get a hyper specific ad on Facebook for the same price. If you ARE going to go to an independent news outlet to advertise you probably are going to link to your Facebook page as the click through anyway, so you are still essentially buying likes.

Of course – you might argue, if these people aren’t organic fans won’t they just blow up numbers without it meaning anything? But like I said in the beginning – that’s the fucked up thing – it does mean something. Buying likes allows people to see that you re serious and are willing to dump money into advertising your band, much like how thirty years ago a label might take interest after seeing a band was willing to drop a few grand to be featured in magazines. While yes – you can grow your likes organically (And I’m sure we will discuss that in a future article) it’s important to establish a base of likes, because even if five of the hundred likes you buy leads to a genuine fan who listens to you on bandcamp then you are doing well. Sure, it might not pay off initially but in the long run the increased brand awareness can’t help but bring you along.

Now – I do want to touch on the moral question more in depth. I know that a lot of you who are against print ads back in the day might be against Facebook ads now. That’s fine. I totally get it. No one is forcing you to buy them .You can’t complain though that Facebook is choking out your band, because at least they are giving you some platform when for so long there was none. The internet is a magical thing and has led to an incredible culture of entitlement – even among bands who I once thought were as punk as it got. I understand why it’s happened – the internet is so far beyond our puny human minds that it’s hard to wrap your head around it. This service has irreversibly changed all of our lives and now we need to prove that we deserve it. If the people who control how you use it want to set up limitations that’s fine – it’s their site after all. If you don’t like it- figure something else out and on your own terms.

You might say this is impossible – and that’s because it probably is. Yet, that’s a whole separate issue. Making people care is really, really hard and if Facebook are helping you to do that at all, even if it is for their own money grubbing reasons then they are kind of in the right. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with them, but there is a reason that every real band these days has a Facebook account. There is a reason that we are all registered to the service. It gives us perhaps the most access to the most amount of content – and as long as they continue to do that we will continue to be hooked.

So yes, Facebook is all but inescapable these days. It’s frustrating and can be a bit scary. I spend pretty much all of my waking hours on it so I understand this just as well as anyone. What we need to do though is realize that this is the platform we have to share our content. A lot of these rules apply to Twitter and the like as well – but as I’ve discussed previously, Facebook seems to be the most important for the discernible future. We need to embrace Facebook ads – sure it sucks, and sure there are ways around them (Full of Hell for example offer a deal where if people share certain posts they can win free merch) but it’s something that we have to deal with. So now you have three choices, the obvious – use Facebook and continue the fight, the almost impossible – start your own service, and the incredibly easy – turn around and go home. What do you pick?

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 Databases Don’t Work – Understanding Cold Calling In The Music Industry

Databases pretty much never work – unless you pay…. and even then you gotta take what you can get. I mean on a surface level that makes sense. Like everything else in the freemium age, the good stuff is hidden behind a paywall and I think we are all to eager to ignore. However – at least when you get past paywalls for most other services you have some guarantee that they will come through. Unfortunately with databases this is not the case. Why? Because databases require a human element on the other end. This isn’t asking some programmer to give you access to the cool thing he created, this is you asking for email addresses for people who are probably already bogged down with work.

I’ve been frustrated lately trying to get some of my clients onto the summer festival circuit. It’s not exactly an easy path to take, and why? Because of the fundamental rule of the music industry – no one cares until you make them care. So many people in this industry simply aren’t going to be interested, because they have hundreds of other people asking for the same thing. That’s not the point of this article though – even if I have talked about it before. What I want to really get into is the importance of personal connections – and what that means for you.

The reason that databases of anything don’t work in music is that you are basically always asking for favors – and that’s fine, that’s how the system works. But still – you are asking for favors. For example, the website Do DIY is a great resource – but the percentage of responses you are going to get is hilariously small, because in music cold calling rarely works. The same goes for services that offer to send your bands record to four hundred blogs for $100. Yeah – you get what they offer, but with a lack of personal connection then what they offer really isn’t worth it. Unless you are a big name band most people probably aren’t going to take an interest. That’s why people shell out for big producers, fancy studios and top notch PR companies. Not because those things are going to be by default better, this is the internet age, you can technically do this all on your own. Instead these things matter because they have a name behind them and they make people care. If you get Billy Anderson or Sanford Parker to work with you at Morrissound people’s ears are going to perk up – even if it is your first EP!

In the modern music industry, radio play means nothing, press only matters if people click and the world is literally crashing down around us. I’m not really sure what to make of this whole thing but neither is anybody else. I mean – we’re coming up in a sort of post apocalyptic wasteland and realizing nothing has changed. Crusty Pete in Camden might really like your band if he bothered to listen to them and maybe even book that show you want at the Crab Shack. That doesn’t matter though, since you reached out to a listed email and not through your friend Pretty Boy who happens to know Crusty Pete from the Extortionist days. In a world of constant demand almost no one cares. You are going to get a lot further by making friends than by just reaching out to strangers.

That’s part of why it’s important to be a big contributor in your scene. So that when the time comes for you to ask for something people will want to do it. This entire thing is a system of checks and balances, screw ups and ameliorations. You are either with us or against us, you can either support the scene or make it suffer. This isn’t a question of pouring money into going to every show you can. No – it is much more one of being willing to sacrifice your free time to help the musicians you love. It’s being willing to go out and realize what really matters to you – and then acting on it. In a day and age where few people care about anything, getting even a handful of folks to act on what they like can change everything.

This is a perfect example of the 80/20 rule or even the 95/5 rule – the famous notion that 20% of the people do 80% of the work, or as some slightly more nihilistic types suggest, 5% do 95% of the work. If you look around you at the music industry though you realize that it is nowhere near the democratic place we all hoped the internet and technology would make it. Instead you have people more bogged down than ever having to deal with more requests than ever from people who don’t really ‘get it’. It creates a cycle of overwork and stress that could drive anyone insane.

That being said – there definitely is some merit to getting a big ol’ masterlist of venues and reaching out to every single one of them. Festivalnet for example has helped me set up a handful of solid dates for a client of mine and Do DIY has come up in the clutch in a few others. These aren’t things you can rely on though and if you are – then I’m sorry to tell you that you’re doing it wrong. Instead you need to stand up and be ready to fight for a future that isn’t at all certain. I can guarantee you that at some point you will stay up all night and send emails – and the few connections you do make will be worth it. Just remember that the connections made will be minimal – that’s just how this goes.

Simply put – databases are not whats going to help you. One email to someone you have a solid connection with is worth more than a thousand to people you do not. Sure you might get a few more results, but if that connection really is true then it will lead to results organically and on its own. The music industry is hardly a fount of infinite money, and it’s largely held together by people working on passion alone and desperately hoping that they don’t accidentally destroy the cool thing that we have created here. It all hangs by a thread and it’s partially up to you to help keep it going. Don’t go out and act on some stupid rumors. Yes – you do have to spend long nights going through databases sometimes, and its admirable to put in the hours simply because you have to, but realize that more than anything else what ‘s going to carry you through is what got you into this in the first place – your friends.

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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