Honing The Craft vs. Promoting

[minipoodle]

From what I hear and have read it used to be that there were venues/events where if a new group was good enough they could participate and gain exposure. At the very miniumum there were venues where, even if the group had to toil away for 4 hours, people would come to hear music and the band could start to gather a following.

All I hear from promoters now is that bands need to flyer the city and promote on the internet, in the press, on the toilet, in the shower...How can one have enough time to both write well crafted songs and develop a good show and do the job of a full time publicist/agent/promoter at the same time?

cheers
M

MySpace.com - Irv Irving - New York City - www.myspace.com/irvirving

[AudioFields]

fast fingers, long battery life on you ibook, and a hell of a lot of dedication. Seriously though, assign each band member tasks. Everything from myspace to loading gear, that will slowly start turning your band into a business. Which is what you want. Have every member in the band read "Everything You Need To Know About The Music Business". Itll either scare them or motivate them.

[John Suitcase]

Think about it from the club's perspective. They need to collect door receipts and sell drinks. If you can provide them with a crowd that spends money, they'll love you. If you can't, you can't.

So, think about it from a non-fan's perspective. Will you go see a band you've never heard, because you've seen a bunch of flyers, or seen some t-shirts, or read an article in the paper? Maybe, but probably not.

So, how do you get people to hear you and want to see you live? Make friends. With people who have friends.

I've seen the worst bands draw like crazy because the guys have loads of friends.

And, of course, build a fan base, and work that fan base like crazy. Get names and email addresses. Make sure everyone knows about your next gig.

I'm sure you realize all this, but the bottom line is that being a great band gets you nowhere. It's about giving the club/record label/promoter/agent/manager/radio/etc something that makes them money. If they have to work for money, they're not going to be interested. It needs to be easy, on a silver platter.

Have fun!

[u b k]

Originally Posted by John Suitcase

I've seen the worst bands draw like crazy because the guys have loads of friends.

there it is in a nutshell. networking & community, the keys to achieving everything.

someone in your band is, or knows, a social hub. find out how you can help them, how you can improve their situation, and do it. they will help you in return, it's what humans do, and it's what hubs do extremely well. which is why they're hubs.


gregoire
del
ubk
.

[JimmyM]

It's called "politics." Learn it or perish.

[minipoodle]

Believe me. I'm aware of all this...I've worked for two record labels, read the books, set up tours, done promotion, professionally. I guess I was interested to see if any older cats (maybe some of you folks who answered are) had any memories of this other system of which I've read and heard. I guess that the original post was more of a rhetorical question but thanks.

M

[The Byre]

Without a proper full-time agent who has a roster of good acts on his/her books, you will get nowhere.

Also, clubs and other venues often prefer to book through an agent that they know, simply because it guarantees quality and gets all the bookings for a month or a quarter done in one visit.

[minipoodle]

yeah...getting gigs is easy. getting ones with good audience building opportunity is the hard part...

[John Suitcase]

Originally Posted by minipoodle

yeah...getting gigs is easy. getting ones with good audience building opportunity is the hard part...

OK, I used to tour with my band, and have booked tours for other bands, along with promoting concerts here in phx. If you're trying to break a new band, you need to set up shows with bands that draw well already. So, you go to some local bands that draw well and tell them about this great show you're setting up (you may have to make it sound as though other great bands have signed on already. Don't worry, they will), and will they play? Once you have them signed on, you go to a club or three and see if they're interested in this package show you've got set up. Tell them the original club fell through, or whatever. Your band should play an early slot, not necessarily the first spot, but no later than 2nd or 3rd, if it's a 5 band bill, say. Play a short set of your most powerful songs, and don't leave anything on stage. Be sure to have CDs, stickers, and a signup for your list.

Do that in every nearby market (use myspace, etc to find the bands that draw well in those markets,) and repeat every few months. Over a year or two, you'll build good buzz, and make great contacts with people in successful bands.

That's how it was done 15 years ago, and that's still how it's done.

[minipoodle]

Originally Posted by John Suitcase

That's how it was done 15 years ago, and that's still how it's done.

I agree with you to a large extent. But I'm not talking 15 years ago- more like 50...

[JimmyM]

50 years ago it was the same basic model, except that musicians and people well-tuned into music ran the industry and they would take chances on very talented people who didn't have a track record more often. But now it's completely about how many units you can sell and how many asses you can put in seats, and forget about talent. That's what happens when you let lawyers and accountants whose only musical experience is singing in the shower run the music business.

[minipoodle]

there we go!

Originally Posted by JimmyM

50 years ago it was the same basic model, except that musicians and people well-tuned into music ran the industry and they would take chances on very talented people who didn't have a track record more often. But now it's completely about how many units you can sell and how many asses you can put in seats, and forget about talent. That's what happens when you let lawyers and accountants whose only musical experience is singing in the shower run the music business.

[John Suitcase]

I think you're right to a degree, but it's always been about the money, from the business side of things.

Bob Lefsetz makes some great points about how hit-driven business models have destroyed the business. There's no new catalogue music. No one is buying the hits of the 90's, people are still buying the Led Zeppelins and Pink Floyds, though.

But, if you manage your career properly and build a fanbase correctly, you can have a long, sustainable and profitable career. Just don't shoot for the hit record, write and play great music that speaks to your fans, and you have a chance.

The age of pop-music is kind of over. I don't think we'll see radio and record companies able to break new acts the way they used to. And the ones they break will continue to be mostly garbage that sells for a few weeks, then disappears.

[BevvyB]

The record industry of 42 years ago in the UK, to quote Simon Napier Bell:

In 1966 I came into a business that was alive with excitement and optimism. I was one of a select group - the young managers, like Brian Epstein, Andrew Loog Oldham and Kit Lambert - who had taken over the UK's new pop groups - the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Yardbirds, the Animals. We young managers were on fire. We hustled, and we were free. We weren't even friends, yet we knew each other from hanging out at the Ad Lib club or the Scotch of St James. Despite enormous differences between us, we found one thing in common. We all saw our principal job as going to war with the record company.

The first record company I ever went to was Decca in London in 1964. It was a six-storey building on the south bank of the river at Lambeth. The inside was painted in the same colour, olive green, as government buildings - like the labour exchange or the tax office. With a gruff commissioner on the door, it was pure bureaucracy, the civil service of the music industry. During the Second World War, Decca developed radar for the army. From the profits, its stuffy owner, Sir Edward Lewis, indulged his enthusiasm for recording classical music. For him, pop music was a necessary sideline, nothing to be too proud of.

At Decca they didn't like young people. I was 25, but I talked my way into seeing someone in A&R, a small mean-minded man who sat picking his nose while I played my record. It was a group I wanted to manage and I'd paid for them to make the record. The man was a pedant; a killjoy. 'It's dreadful!' he exclaimed. 'The song's not memorable and the musicians don't catch the beat.' Then, surprisingly, he agreed a deal. It was a very small one, but I was delighted - my first step into the business. But if the record was as bad as he'd said it was, why did he give me a deal? And if it wasn't that bad, why had he said it was? I left the building thinking, 'What a wanker!' and it's been difficult to think of A&R people in any other way since.

At that time Britain had four major record companies - Decca, EMI, Pye and Philips. These last two were offshoots of corporations that produced electronic hardware for home and industry. EMI, like Decca, manufactured hi-tech equipment for the government, mainly for hospitals - brain scanners and the like. None of these companies had been set up first and foremost for music; they made records for extra profit. It was a wonderful trick they'd learnt. They bought vinyl cheaply; added a label, a song and a sleeve and sold it expensively.

No musicians running it fifty years ago here in the UK. There could be an argument that the record industry became more artist friendly as time went on, as more musicians/managers infiltrated the offices of the people who had previously only sold radars and washing machines.

Full article:

Simon Napier-Bell on the music industry | Pop | guardian.co.uk Music

[peeder]

I think the most important thing to do is start by developing a product people are going to want to buy and associate with. Once you have that in hand, going out and franchising it isn't terribly difficult, because for every one convert you win you get 3-4 more free as they go out and talk you up.

But many aspiring acts do not put in the work to develop that and instead try to promote something like mad that isn't terribly interesting and is nowhere near their potential. They spend $10 for every $1 they get in return and eventually find something else to do.

It's possible to do a bit of both at once, just make sure that the art takes precedence at least until you've really got something.

Most acts actually do neither, never leaving their bedrooms.