So I did some work on the possible disc case thing. Here’s a video of me trying to assemble one while holding a camera in the other hand.
I talked to Shane Sauers a bit about the assembly thing (the video is mainly so he could see what I’m thinking & improve on the design). We were talking about running labels (he runs Northpole) & whether or not it’s worth it to advertise. He had a story about a magazine telling him a review would run & when he said he couldn’t justify an ad for a seven inch limited to 300 copies the review got pulled (of course it’s in a magazine you would respect, this is just how magazines work, which is shitty but understandable from a business standpoint). In similar news another friend of mine is talking about hiring a real publicist (the kind that only works with a total of ten or so clients) which costs about $10,000 for a year which I have absolutely no idea of whether or not that actually ends up panning out. It’s funny to hear these stories about friends who are in similar music business situations to me just taking the big leap investing $10,000 in ads or a publicist. I just can’t justify it personally. I’d rather put out 5 CDs with the money hoping to break even than put all my eggs in one basket. But it could very well be that they are right & I am wrong.
I just read this interesting rant about music blogs on The Decibel Tolls about how bands spike & fall. It’s interesting because I don’t think the reviewer is aware of how money driven a lot of blogs end up being & once the money for promoting a band dies down, the bands that are unnaturally buzzing fall back down to nothing.
I saw a re-run of this bit from Norm MacDonald a while ago. I think it’s funny, but it is definitely long.
Last Night’s Dream:
My brother has moved back in with me & my grandmother (again) & I’m sleeping on the couch waiting for my grandmother to wake up. She wakes up during the five minutes my brother is getting his breakfast so he tries to help her into the bathroom rather than waking me up. I hear a huge commotion in the bathroom & I go in & there is shit & vomit all over the floor.
well in order to even break even you’ve got to either price the CD’s high or sell a lot of copies so just relying on word of mouth or the multitude of blogs that nobody really reads unless they’re looking for their own reviews probably doesn’t help.
I’m doubtful ads even work in this day and age. I mean when was the last time you went to a website and saw an ad and was interested enough to click on it? Then again not everybody is me and i did run a couple of those cheap FBook ads as an experiment and while it was only 25$ the most that came out of it was 2 or 3 more FB likes.
Publicist, i’m weary of… on one hand they can do more for you than you can due to their established connections and ability to put the time in and the other, what they do is it really going to help you out enough or are you just paying money to see yourself in print etc. . . . . if you’re still only getting into the hands of people that aren’t going to like your music anyways, it’ll never translate to sells or more people at your shows despite more awareness. That’s why i dunno if that route would do Silber niche any justice. If we only played punk or metal this would be way easier to make connects.
I still think the #1 way to increase exposure is through live performance and meeting people. I don’t know of a single artist that got popular any other way except for novelty acts like DieAntwoord or ones that had members of formerly successful artists.
That $10,000 might be better served sending people out on the road if the goal is to sell more music/CDs etc. . .
i think in the chart on the page you linked Cold War Kids “A&R reps frustrated with blogs creating artificial fan following” is the most important statement on that page. Also that the internet is more or less marketing to people that don’t really like music, who i guess technically are the people you need to reach but being the internet and all these people no longer put worth on music and then how can you expect them to do anythign but download it for free or not at all.
Yeah, I think the $10,000 I would much prefer to set for putting bands on the road. If I had the money & gave bands an extra $100 per show I think that more touring could happen. I mean, it seems like the bands that I’ve known that have made it did it by doing 200-300 shows a year for 5 years. Of course gas was cheaper then & booking agents were easier to come by & show attendance was higher. But I think touring is great also because it brings a band together &/or breaks them apart so you either end up with a better band or a band that shouldn’t exist not existing anymore.
I think the theory of getting a publicist & becoming a buzz band is possibly scoring an advertisement placement or film placement that will hopefully cover the investment.
from the comfort of your own home no less.