I’ve been planning to write this piece for awhile… Bands and artists alike seem to be really flailing amidst this crazy time in the music industry, not to mention a real and tangible economic recession.
I regularly talk to many artists, bands and musicians who seem to be growing more and more lost, confused and disheartened by the continuing influx, change and perpetually new revelations of the music biz. Independent artists are finding themselves overwhelmed with the whole “do it yourself” model, unsure of where to dedicate their time and resources necessary for success.
Rather than trying to do it all, artists should identify and prioritize the people and resources most necessary for success. While this may vary for each individual artist, depending on what you’ve already got going and who is already on your team, here is a list of things that you don’t need:
- A record label. While a label can be helpful, depending on what they have to offer, they are by no means necessary. A confident band should ask an interested label “what can you do for me?” Unless they are able to offer significant value – in actual financial support or expensive services, like recording, a national PR campaign, national/regional tour booking, etc, the economies in music are continuing to favor the artists, when it comes to putting out records. Not that there aren’t some decent deals out there… A couple small Portland-based labels that seem to be doing some good things for their artists are Badman Records, Bladen County Records, and Holocene Music. But again, one must ask even labels such as these “what’s in it for me?” Be especially wary of a label that wants you to spend your own money or wants anything more than half of your record sales.
- Expensive studio recording. While the best basement or garage recording will almost never be as good as a good studio recording, technology is quickly bridging the gap. And this fact is making an impact on studio prices, making some studio recording options more financially reasonable. Here are your two options:
- Spend some time (at least 6-12 months) researching and learning about recording. Pay attention when you’re in a professional studio and take notes on what they do and how they do it. Talk to people with studio experience. Learn how to master Pro Tools and other recording applications. Take the money you were saving up for studio sessions and invest in some high quality equipment. If you don’t know what to buy, talk to some engineers and take note of what they’re using in the studio. Or…
- Get out and build some relationships with engineers and studios. These people are at shows, might be in your circle of friends or in your community, and are probably only a couple degrees of separation from you. Find a good studio with an engineer that you like and have a good vibe with. Negotiate a good price and stay within your budget. Ideally, you can spend as little as $2k on recording…and if you’re spending more than $3k or $4k on recording, you’re probably doing something wrong. The key here is preparation. Spend a lot of time on your own in your rehearsal space, arranging and getting everything exactly how you want it. Spend extra time to get everything just right. Then, when you go into the studio, be efficient with your time and don’t take too many detours. Do what you came to do and get out. In Portland, Oregon – Jordan and the guys over at The Secret Society are a great place to explore recording options.
- Radio play. While radio play is nice and is good for confidence and egos, it’s no longer necessary for success. A national radio campaign is a waste of money. A national college radio campaign, while more targeted, is also becoming less relevant. The only radio play that really matters and carries value is radio play in your primary market or markets. If you play Portland and Seattle the most, focus your radio efforts on Portland and Seattle and call it good. Portland artists should focus on (depending on the fit for your music): KINK, KNRK, OPB and KEXP. And the best part about this is you don’t have to hire some expensive PR agency to do this. Your manager or regular publicist can do this pretty easily and the only real cost is postage and the cost of your CDs. Sure, relationships at the radio stations help…but don’t pay a publicist $500 to get introductions at 5 radio stations. Alternatively, getting your music out to influential music blogs is growing as a more effective and inexpensive tool.
- Expensive videos and photo shoots. Being that I have a few friends that are hard working photographers and videographers…I’ll try to get this right, without looking like an ass. While quality videos and photos do help separate the serious artists from the riff-raff, you don’t need to break the bank on them. While you are just starting out and aren’t generating any real “income” from your music and work, you’ve got to toe the line with your spending. If you live in a city like Portland, Oregon, there are hundreds of super talented videographers and photographers that would love to support a good band. Take some time to build some relationships and invite these folks to your shows. A good relationship between bands and photographers should by symbiotic – meaning, in addition to paying them, you should do your best to promote them and their work too. Then, if you do well, they’ll get valuable exposure. Now if you’re lucky, a photographer friend might do a promo shoot you for anywhere between $100 to $800. Remember, this is doing it on a budget. You can certainly pay more…and they are most definitely worth every penny. But as long as you aren’t getting paid what you’re worth, I recommend maintaining a similar philosophy when shopping for other artistic services. Try some up-and-comers. Maybe give a photography student a chance. The Dimes used a friend of the band, Mathias Ailstock, who also happened to be an up-and-comer high school student. The short story is that Mathias did an awesome job and might be the first 16-year-old to have his photos land in Spin Magazine! And speaking of dynamte, DIY videos, check out what Dominic Castillo and the Rock Savants did for their video, Keep You Around:
However, in the end, remember that photographers and videographers are artists too and must cover their costs and, ultimately, need to make money too. - A fancy website. While I’ll be the first to tell you that effective and compelling communication and marketing is VERY IMPORTANT…in general, I think people are spending way too much money on websites these days. Personally, I don’t understand it. Heck, I know practically nothing about websites, HTML or other big acronyms like that and I somehow managed to build this cute little blog myself. Simply put, WordPress is the future for quick, easy, yet very efficient content medium for the web. If you don’t know much about WordPress, go here to www.wordpress.org to learn more information. Essentially, blog templates are evolving into fully-functional websites, where you can manage your content (music, words, links, photos, media, etc) with much greater ease than any Flash or HTML website. And the best part about WordPress is it’s virtually free. Here is all you need:
- A domain name. Example: www.yourname.com. Typically, you can go to GoDaddy.com or somewhere similar and buy your domain name for as little as $10. It’s easy and if you need help, send me an email about it.
- Web hosting. For musicians, HostBaby is a wonderful option. For around $18 a month, it also manages your mailing lists and has a nice email application built-in, it has an easy upload feature for storing and sharing music online, and a few other functions and features. Plus, they give you top-notch support. Other web hosting options are available for as little as $5-$15 a month. My friend, Ben Herman at Mad Fish SEO, hosts my site and is a dynamite SEO guy too.
- An FTP application. This is a tool you need to put files on your website. The best free one that I’m aware of is Cyberduck. But there are many other free ones out there.
- A WordPress template or theme. This is essentially the look, feel and layout of your website. While there are many free WordPress templates out there, I use Grid Focus (free). Other ones I recommend are The Morning After (free), Thesis, and Revolution themes/templates. The greatest benefit of these templates is that thousands of people use them and they are continually being developed. The best part about WordPress is it’s a publishing application that any moron can use. The backend (user interface) is as easy as Legos. Seriously. It’s a free, web-based application and there is no software to buy.
- For example, take a look at The Dimes main website at www.thedimes.com. This is a nice, high-end Flash website. You can expect to pay anywhere from $1500-$3000+ for a website like this and sure, it will help separate your band from the riff-raff. However, you also need to buy a copy of Flash (software application) to make updates to the site, which runs you around $500. You’ll also need to have someone on your team who knows how to use Flash too. And worst of all, Flash websites are not friendly to search engines, including Google. On the other side of the coin, take a look at The Dimes Blog page at www.thedimes.com/blog. This is a WordPress-based website and is virtually free. No software purchases are needed and anyone in the band can easily make updates, upload photos, songs, videos, etc. And there are many add-ons available too.
There. I’m sure I could go on and on with a gigantic list of what bands and artists don’t need, but this is a pretty good list. My next “Strategy” entry will take the other side of things and will address the essential, absolute things that indie artists do need. You see, too many artists take the approach that DIY means “Do It ALL Yourself.” If you get caught in the mess of trying to do everything (managing, booking, press, distribution, etc), your music will never be the priority it should be and you’ll never move quickly and efficiently in this business as you need to.
