On Being A Musician
1) the type that wants me to hear their demos
or
2) the type that wants me to tell them how to make it as a musician
the question is this: what is "it"?
yeah, it sounds like a Clinton deposition ("what IS the meaning of IT?")
so i'm going to say this to everyone so i may not have to repeat it again in a crowded club during the third opening act's set and blow out my voice
just keep doing it yourself for as long as it makes sense
i know, i know..."DIY" is such a thrown around, often-used, often-abused term...but it's true, true, true
if you're a musician in a new band- unsigned especially- you have to get a couple of things to shine thru those rose-tinted "we're gonna sell a million records and be as big as Zeppelin" glasses you've been wearing pretty fast:
1) it's no longer about how many records you sell. it's about how much money you make at selling the ones you do sell
soundscans and that entire generation of determining a band's worthiness to live by a sales figure is out the door (and not soon enough.) who cares if you sell 70,000 units on a record label if you'll never see a penny for any of it past that initial advance you got? what the hell is the point? (which goes to a future post i'll make- you may not even need a record label anymore either. set your own label up and keep everything in-house or hire independent contractors to do your marketing and publicity. how is this possible to even consider? because retailers are becoming less and less useful to you as a band. more later on that..)
but- back to my point- if you sell 30,000 records on your own, directly to your fans, and you can quit your day job and have some money in the bank for the upcoming tour, fixing the van or for the next studio time- isn't that the point?
because it sure is now.
there's no one in the industry to impress anymore. it's not about showing how big you are. it's about showing how smart you are.
and- why turn over your work to someone else to own and that you'll only end up fighting with forever to get the rights back to, and, at the same time, end up being indentured to financially just as long?
2) merch is your game, man. don't blow it.
there's a standard rule of thumb in business when you're dealing with customers, and, in your case, your fans: your best customers are your current ones and the second best customers are the ones you recently lost (figuring they'll be the easiest to get to come back and try you out again.)
your fans are dedicated to you. they love you. they get what you're about and they want to own everything you create. some of them are going to be asses and download all of your music for free and not buy much at all. i don't think those people are real fans. they're just lazy. kinda like those friends that come over to your party and don't bring anything. they're just moochers. so don't work for them- work for the ones that own two of your shirts, the ones that bought your pins, all of your stickers, and will buy the limited-edition CD jewel-cased packaging you did when you reissued your first few EPs together as one album. these fans will keep you out of debt, gang, so treat them like gold.Â
figure out how to treat them like gold.
and 3) digital-only releases are the way to go. keep the hard-cased CDs around for special-packaging. if you really want to create an actual CD to hand out, make it special or keep it cheap. you got two ways to go on that. if you're just trying to get your name out at first- then either go digital-download card or a cheap CD package. past that, once you get a fan-base of a decent size built up, then start creating limited-edition CD packages for your real fans and sell them at your merch booth, but still release your stuff, on your own, digitally, for the world to discover.
past all of that- it's all about knowing how to market yourself on the internet and guerilla-marketing on the street.
it's the wild west right now in the music business so there are no bad ideas.
no one knows what the fuck they're doing and that's the fun part.
i've got more thoughts and i'll share them in future postings, def.
thiago's look at me pissed off because i haven't played with him tonight. he's got his rope in his mouth and he's whining...
typical boy.
-mike
11 Comments:
Good read. Though I consider myself a "real fan" I do hate the limited edition re-releases. No fun payin 24 dollars for the same ten songs and 3 new ones.( If thats what you were saying.)
Your blogs are gold, keep it up. I look foward to the next one.
i like the fact that you have explained how this works. i have tried to explain this to a friend of mine.
just sad that there's a new generation of bands stuck in 360 deals now.......
I agree with almost everything but the "digital is the only way to go" thing. Three-quarters of my bands' CD sales are at-show sales. Were we to give them a download card or somesuch, we'd probably retain some of those sales, but we'd likely lose most.
The majority of music is sold today in a physical form. That's changing, perhaps quickly, but to exclude all those people who DON'T buy downloads, is to turn your back on a significant share of potential sales.
Man, you are so right about it being the Wild West!
I'd like to hear your thoughts on releasing whole albums for free and working with websites that share ad revenue (which seems to be a new trend I've seen lately). Maybe selling merchandise along side of the free downloads?
Nice post btw.
Though I thought this was on point in a lot of respects, I have to disagree with severing limiting the physical recording. However, I DO agree with special packaging.
Look at it this way folks. People are either not into buying music, or there's a ton of fence-sitting out there about buying the record.
If someone likes your band, then you're almost there. My feelings as of late is that if you want to drive people to buy the recording, you have to actually consider the packaging into the equation. Far, far more than some cool cover on a four panel layout.
People buy with their eyes. If the packaging is so involved and nuts to look at, they will be salivating to own it. Records these days are released looking like the label/band didn't even care about it.
My band released its first demo with a three panel, all color layout that I paid for some solid artwork from a notable artist. Though that's not too fancy, for a demo it definitely is. And plenty of the reviews we received mentioned the packaging.
Anyways, stumbled across the blog. Will surely be subscribing.
Thanks a lot for the tips. It's both scary and hilarious to watch the death throes of the RIAA and their overzealous pursuit of persecuting their few remaining customers in some hope that if they sue enough people, people will buy. They won't, because all the best bands have gone indie and don't need the labels!
I don't know where else to post this, but thanks for the interview with John Feldmann. Goldfinger was my first concert when I was 10 (my dad took me who was in his mid 40s then and had grey hair) and I fell in love with punk rock from that moment onward. I am dying to talk to John about Animal Welfare and Animal Rights without being an idiot about it.
Finally someone telling it like it is. The physical CD is dead along with labels, distributors, and possibly even record stores. Our local one went out of business two years ago in anticipation of the end, and I have to say, it was nice to end on a high note. This development is great for the consumer and the struggling musician and bad for canned corporate crap. The funny thing is most beginning musicians cannot shake this dream of being an idol. Too bad, because idols are dead. There are too many hands in the pot now and not enough money to feed everyone. I'd take Mike's advice to independent artists a step further: don't plan on making any money with your music. Play what you want to, make good art and plan on having a job to pay the bills. That's the long and short of it for most musicians.
Good blog, but i have to say, its really sad that people are this willing to give up on physical recordings. I stopped downloading digital cds awhile ago because i realized how much i was missing out on, with artwork and all that. All my friends think i'm crazy, so i definately see where your coming from, but still, i dont think its good to just get rid of CDs. There are still a few people left, like me, that appriciate the effort, and will go out of their way to buy it.
I enjoyed reading this, tho I'm really late.
I don't agree that buying CDs are dead. Like you said, if you set a few aside and do something special with them (such how Nevershoutnever! is offering a limited supply of handmade hardcopies of his new EP wrapped with yellow string from his video BigCitydreams) there are people that are going to buy it, people who appreciate these little things (like me!). Doing your personal artwork also may help, or only produce a small amount of hardcopies to sell by hand at shows. You'll keep 100% of what you were given.
But I do agree that this day and age, you have to be smart, do something that makes you standout, like crossing into other forms of media, such as art (Gerard Way and Claudio Sanchez do comics) or videogames (Plain White Tee's and CIWWAF's Wii characters, songs in game soundtracks).
But yeah, I don't think I would want to be in a label. It's better to not have restriction on your creativity, right?
It's a whole different game now, and it'll be fun when I get out there. ^___^ And people who dream to be idols? They'll matter to at least someone.
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