When starting out, growing a following can seem like an impossible task. If you play it smart, however, it’s actually much simpler than it appears. As we’ve stated before, it is hard in that you must play a lot of shows and make sure that you get your name and music out there, but the [...]
If you’ve even dipped your toes in the water that is independent music then you’ve seen some of the horrible graphic work that is all over the place. It’s not that it’s all bad, but a lot of it… well, it just plain sticks. Bad album art, bad websites, bad flyers and bad T-shirts. They look [...]
Promoting a band can be a full time job. This is why record labels have huge promotions and marketing department. While most independent artists go it alone, there is an advantage that some bands can exploit to make promotion much easier. Delegation. Bands have more than one member; all of whom are personally invested in [...]
This is an article written by Steve Albini that I’ve found posted on a few sites. It was originally published in The Baffler (vol.5), and it’s a pretty thorough and highly pessimistic run through of the recording industry (it even includes a sample income/expense ledger). Albini is a musician (Shellac, Rapeman, Big Black) and producer [...]
A lot of bands rehearse with such consistency that you could set your watch by it. That’s a good thing – it shows dedication. You should be well rehearsed so you know your songs thoroughly and can give the best possible performances that you can give. There are, however times when you can and should [...]
When an industry group that represents several major corporations shakes down ten year old girls, it’s time to rethink about how relevant those corporations really are. This is exactly what happened a few years back when the industry began its war on internet piracy. Even to this day an army of lawyers is working tirelessly [...]
In recent years the word has gotten out and many bands go into record deals with a bit more caution. To do this you have to understand the game and play it the right way. Back in the day, you were offered the Holy Grail and you took it because you figured that you were [...]
While it is the dream of most bands to get signed to a major label, and it is a great help in getting noticed by the general public, there are several factors that suggest getting signed isn’t as big a deal as it used to be. Actually, when you consider the history getting signed has [...]
It was several years ago, Zack, Kelly, Slater, Lisa and Screech were playing their song, Friends Forever, in the garage when Fate stepped in – Brian Fate. Fate was a record executive that happened to be jogging by and heard them playing. So impressed by what he heard, he felt compelled to go to the [...]
So here are links to two articles on a study done at Columbia University on what influences people’s tastes in music. It turns out that “quality” of the music seems to be the least of the determiners of its success. That may sound counter-intuitive, but that’s what these researchers found. While people do genuinely seem [...]
