GOOD ADVICE FOR YOUNG BANDS
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 11:30am by Axl Rosenberg
Over at Invisible Oranges, Cosmo Lee continues his ongoing meditation on all things metal, now by offering some advice to upstart metal acts: get back to the mentality of the tape-trading days and give your first album away for free.
“In this age of downloading,” Lee writes, “people are hardly willing to pay for albums by established bands, much less up-and-coming ones.” He then continues:
Andrew Dubber, whose blog New Music Strategies tackles industry questions head-on, has this bit of insight in this post:
Don’t try to make money from your music, make money BECAUSE of your music
Payment of anything is a powerful barrier to music consumption now. What would a band rather have — a handful of sales each month with pocket change revenues, or no revenues upfront but many fans familiar with the music and potentially buying merch at gigs?
While I understand the temptation to sell your music and attempt to make some cash as quickly as possible, especially now that home recording is so easy even a MetalSucks Mansion Monkey can do it, Cosmo’s advice strikes me as so dead-on as to be a no-brainer. Because I do think there are ways to make money in the music business these days, but I don’t think much of it will come from record sales – especially not when, as Cosmo says, you’re a young band with no following.
Read the rest of Mr. Lee’s thoughts on the matter here, then come back to discuss. As always, I’m curious to hear what the professional musicians think, and maybe even more curious to know what members of young bands make of all this.
-AR
Warbringer did it… Here… I’ve bought both of their cd’s/shirts.
I think the catch is that your music has to be good, though.
I dont know. I’m quite fond of shiny things. I also enjoy things if other people enjoy them. Also if somebody else is listening to something and they say its cool, them I think its cool.
So you are saying at any monkey can do a home recording. That it’s easy huh?
You are right if you want to sound like crap. This is problem with up and coming bands they try to do all this stuff themselves and regardless if the band is good or not it comes out sounding terrible.
Everything can not be done correctly unless you are working with someone who knows what they are doing. Most guys can’t even get good guitar tones out of their own amps let alone know how to record them.
People will pay for stuff if it sounds good and is good. Am I saying sell your first CD for 10 bucks a CD? No but 3-5 bucks people will pay out for something that sounds right and you can recoup all your costs.
You can get a pretty good sounding recording for pretty cheap at this point.
people will still talk shit about it because it’s not “radio quality”.
The reality is, it’s not doing on the radio and, esp for a young band’s first record, people are just going to listen to it on their ipod.
This depends on your definition of cheap? I’m speaking from experience not just some guy who is saying this out of the blue. Most of what comes out of home/project studios sounds horrible. At least on the metal side.
I’m speaking from experience, as well. I’ve heard pretty damn good sounding records in the range of 1500 bucks.
You have seen stuff done that a home studio for 1500 dollars?
1500 dollars is a lot of money for a home studio.
I’ve seen stuff released on labels at home studios for that much.
Well if those bands paid 1500 for someone’s home studio then they got ripped.
But if you want that home studio in the box with the same old sampled drums, EMG pickup, Dual Rec., too much distortion then I guess that is a good deal.
Am I saying you can’t do anything at home? Nope. I’m just saying there are certain things that benefit from a real studio. There are other factors as well. Like a real engineer who knows what he is doing.
For example this morning on Blabber they reported they are doing the drums for the new Nevermore album a a specific studio. Then they will do guitars, bass and vocals at a smaller “home” studio. Then it will be mixed elsewhere.
This is the more cost effective and correct way to do things.
I think you’re misinterpreting my definition of “home studio.”
absolutely. I’ve done some pretty damn good recordings in the range of 1500 bucks. I’ll agree that the question of ‘what is a home studio’ is up for debate these days… the declining price of digital recording gear has reallly changed the game. I’ve been working out of a studio in a basement for the last four years. You could call it a home studio, but the presence of Neve preamps, API eq’s, GML’s and 1176’s distinguishes it radically from a PC with a bunch of waves plugins. No, it doesn’t have 20-foot ceilings and a grand piano and a hot tub. But things we record here come out on labels.
Furthermore, the way the majority of death/black metal new releases are engineered lends itself perfectly to smaller home studios. When every drum on the kit is triggered or sound-replaced (and don’t kid yourselves, for the most part this is how ‘that sound’ is achieved), it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference what the room sounds like. Good gear will always matter, but that’s a situation in which the size, dimensions and material composition of your recording room means absolutely nothing. If you’re trying to make, say, an alt-country album with a wide-open, natural drum sound, that’s a different story.
Totally.
you could actually set up a half decent home studio for 1500 bucks.
andddddddddd…that’s just what everyone else is saying. sorry, i’m illiterate.
iv watched bands start doing this and blow the fuck up
I’ve been working on my “solo” album for over a year now from home. I have a lead guitarist to help me out, and my friend plays keyboards here and there. It is also his laptop and equipment. I have no intentions of selling my first album. In fact, it will be download able from Myspace directly. With the exception of personal friends and family members, I would not expect anyone to pay for my recordings without hearing them first. This is good advice, as I get sick of seeing local bands who have played one or two shows live trying to sell their 8 song demo for $10 (comes with a free sticker!). It doesn’t work, the band implodes, and everybody goes back to their day jobs full time.
Thats kind of a no brainer. Actually I think the days of any musisian being able to charge for music are comming to an end. It’s just too easy to get music for free now.
I think this is smart and the right way to go. I play in an up and coming band in my local music scene (meaning, we’ve got a following here in CO and certain parts of WY) and when we get our first album/demo/whatever done I plan on floating this idea by the guys. We’ve managed to make decent money off shirts and merch at shows that we haven’t had to pay out of pocket for gas, recording, etc. for awhile. I’m all for this idea!
This is why it is so important to go to shows and buy a t-shirt.
I guess most of the money a band makes these days comes from touring and merchandise, but if you’re even a smaller band with no following, it’s up to people to spread the word and go to shows ect.
It’s sad that downloading has become what it is, I personally do very little downloading in favor of purchasing cd’s, since I like to have something tangible in place of a hardrive full of mp3’s
I’d love to buy t-shirts from the bands at their shows. Unfortunately, there are two problems. First, the only venue that bands ever play at happens to be located smack-dab in the ghetto of Cincinnati. Secondly, they don’t make shirts for fatasses! I’d be willing to pay a few dollars more for a fat-ass shirt, but they typically don’t offer them.
As far as album buying goes, I’m a dinosaur in that respect. I buy a lot of CDs still. If it’s a new band I’ve come across, I’ll check out their myspace for some song clips, and if I like them I’ll buy their album. I’ve never had a problem paying for something that gives me a lot of enjoyment.
Also, I have a couple of friends that think a full harddrive of mp3s is a collection of music. No, bookshelves full of CDs, Vinyls, and Tapes. That’s not a collection.
What about Bogarts?
Bogart’s definitely sucks. It’s in such a shithole area.
i’ve been doing this for quite some time. i figure that nobody wants to pay for my music, so i’m not going to force them to. i mean, i can’t count the number of times i’ve bought an album and wound up being disappointed with it, so if i can save someone the same disappointment that i went through as a kid shelling out 25 bucks for music that i didn’t really care for, i’ve done all i can. plus, it’s not like i’ve invested any great amount of money into my recordings (as you can probably hear.)
i mean, the fact is that if you’re a musician trying to attempt any sort of success, you have to accept that your album is going to get ripped off on the internet. and you can either a) whine like a little bitch that file sharers are stealing from you or b) embrace it and use it to your advantage. because if used effectively, the internet can be one of the most powerful marketing tools you have as a band.
but suing your fans, (because trust me, that’s who is downloading your music), and throwing a bitch fit any time someone downloads one of your songs is fucking lame. frankly, i wish that more artists would get over themselves and just accept file sharing instead of acting like a bunch of spoiled princesses. and i especially wish that more artists would tell the RIAA to pull their heads out of their asses and stop fucking suing people. because when i see shit like this: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/riaa-jury-slaps-2-million-fine-on-jammie-thomas/
it makes me want to break out the molotovs.
This is a great idea. There is no money in cd’s. The only good reason to BUY a record is if its hand made or pressed on vinyl, everything else should be (and is like it or not) free.
Here’s my view on the matter. Speculate to accumulate: http://www.theinevitablenose.com/2009/08/loss-leaders-some-thoughts-for-unsigned-bands/
http://www.myspace.com/kingdoms did this
15 000 downloads later and theyre signed…good for them! Plan works.
I am in a touring band…MERCH is really the only frontier left these days for bands like mine to make good money. And “good money” does not mean “good money”. But it gets us from place to place.
A lot of bands, mine included, are putting alot of money into designing and printing these shirts to a way where they catch the eye of a potential buyer, so that maybe they say, “Oh, that shirt looks awesome. Maybe i will go check out there music now.”
All you can do is hope for the best really. Our first demo we gave away…but anything that we technically put quite a bit of money into, we are trying to make some money back. It’s just the way it works. My band has helped a lot of design artists by filling their pockets with money to make the “next big thing” that everyone seems to be searching for…
Who knows where this all will lead….but if you ask me, the day of CD’s is about over :( Sadly…..
I think that it’s all but a requirement at this point to be giving shit away for free as an unsigned band these days. With the state of the industry, a cd doesn’t have the same tangibility that it used to in years past. People are much more inclined to buy a t shirt or hoodie if they liked your set then to spend 10 bucks on your crappy record. In addition to giving away music I think it’s important to still put some thought into an eyecatching way to package it. My band is finishing up 5 new songs right now that we’ll be giving away over the internet and at shows. It’s going to just be in a clear plastic sleeve but it’ll have front and back cover art that we got printed onto gloss cardstock so it actually looks decent. Even though you’re already taking a loss giving away free music, in an image and art driven scene, I think it’s important that your band has a visual aspect going on too.
i work at a professional recording studio and trust me…you do NOT get the same sounds you do at a home studio.. especially if you want your drums to sound good… trust me, listen to a professionally recorded metal album and one from a home studio and you can tell the difference…. but that doesnt matter because no one buys CDs anymore… best thing you can do as a young band is get fans, sell merch, and play shows. and Labels suck now a days with the whole 360 deal. NEVER SIGN A 360 Deal unless you want all the money you make from your tours and merch to go bye bye
oh yeah… man make vinyl copys of your album and sell those…. vinyl always sells (sometimes)
Hi! Lee here from Australian metal band Double Dragon, feel free to download our album DEVASTATOR at the link below, im seeding now!
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4617167/Double_Dragon_-_Devastator_(2008)_%5Bmp3_197%5D
GET IT!!!
Tired of reading about old-school guys giving advice on a new-school scene. Out with the old, in with the new. Start a fucking band in 2009, and give us advice then.
Giving away your music for free definitely helps, but getting people to listen to it is the hard part.
All of my music I make comes from my home studio, it was alot of work to put together, but to be able to wake up on my days off and walk down the stairs to my basement, plug in my guitar, write music and what not and record in good quality is absolutely priceless.
-James
Agreed. For less-known bands, the most important thing is to let more people know about your music. Exposure’s the first priority.
But it’s still tough coz I don’t think I would waste 5 mins downloading something from a band I never heard of, unless it’s a recommendation from my friends or sites.