|
Post by floyds machine on Jan 14, 2014 17:57:58 GMT -5
I'm impressed. Sootoday hasn't mentioned Lops or a musician. This house is cleansed. That's my Poltergeist quote of the day. Thank you and goodnight.
|
|
robfrules
New Member
http://saultmetalscene.blogspot.ca
Posts: 33
|
Post by robfrules on Jan 20, 2014 11:39:11 GMT -5
Nice to see Rob Figures enter in on the thread but sometimes his playing safe and staying neutral doesn't work. I know he doesn't want to make waves but it was close to being a little ass kissing with Lop Lops on that thread last night. Glad you gave him praise Freq. He deserves it. I just wish he had a little more backbone on discussions like that. Thanks for the praise and the honesty! There was no attempt at "ass kissing", especially as I'm not a LopLops regular by any means, and the bands they book tend to not fit in with my tastes at all. My attempts at neutrality are exactly how you described them though: I don't want to make waves, and I have no ego or agenda to push into a conversation (I mainly only jumped in the first time to respond to some comments about me/the SMS) I have no personal issue with Stephen or anyone who works at/with LopLops, and I don't want to create one. They have a formula there that works, the coverage they get is deserving if you like said artists/genres, and I wouldn't ask them to fix what isn't broke. Are there things worth changing or improving in terms of local media coverage of local bands? Without question, and hopefully this whole discussion and Glen's points will lead in that direction! Once upon a time, metal bands not named Gates of Winter didn't get a lot of media coverage in town, but I've tried to do my part, and hopefully people are reading along!
|
|
|
Post by "The Freq" on Jan 24, 2014 17:05:01 GMT -5
I was sent a link to an article earlier today that I'm going to pass on to readers here. I'm just going to copy and past it and add my own 2 cents to it just because.. I can. hehe
Here's the article.
7 Reasons Why No One's Coming To Your Shows.
1) You suck
Maybe you’re just not that good. Sorry. Most bands aren’t. Most bands are starry eyed and spend more time b*tching about the breaks they’re not getting than in the rehearsal space tightening their show. Get good first. Record your rehearsals AND your shows. Do you LOVE listening to your live set? If not, then why do you think other people will?
I’ve been in the room with bands who listen back to their shows recorded from the board and they actually hear how shitty they sounded. How off key they sang. How the bassist missed the bridge. How the harmonies were off. But they pass it off as a bad board mix. This is sad. Get your shit together. Double your rehearsal schedule and double your at home practice time.
You do not deserve to be paid if you suck. That’s what all these musicians who b*tch about how little they are making at live shows miss. Maybe they’re making nothing because they deserve to be paid nothing.
Stop making me pay to see your shitty band!
If you charge me $10 to come see you suck I’m going to be pissed and never pay again.
People tell me they hate live music. It hurts my soul to hear this. Live music can be spiritual. But too often it’s a chore. A burden. A favor. Because bands don’t take performing seriously enough to rehearse.
2) You Play Out Too Damn Often
Even if your favorite band played your city every week, you wouldn’t go see them. You wouldn’t make it a priority because you could always just “catch the next one.”
If you’re great, you can charge a ticket price and people will happily pay.
Spread Out Your Shows I recommend scheduling one big local show every 6-8 weeks. This gives you proper time to promote the show and get some good buzz going.
3) It’s Not An Event
You are not going to get a music reviewer to care about a 4 band bill show on a Wednesday night. You should turn every show into an EVENT. By spreading your shows out, you actually can come up with a theme and title for each show and make it a fun, talked about event.
Title Your Shows I once organized and played a show in Minneapolis (when I was living there) called “The Unknown Order.” I got together 3 other buzzing bands in the city (none of whom had sold out the acclaimed 800 cap Varsity Theater for any show prior). The idea behind the show was that 10 minutes before the first band started, the emcee would pick a name out of a hat and that would be the first band to play. No one (not even the bands) knew the order of the acts for the evening. After each band finished, the emcee picked another name.
The idea was to get everyone to the club at the start of the show and to put all bands on an equal level – no headliners or openers. The show sold out 10 minutes after doors opened and about 200 people got turned away. 4) You Aren’t Selling Advance Tickets
You always want to try to have advance tickets setup so you can encourage people to buy them and COMMIT to your show. Make them cheaper than the actual door price (if the venue allows this). If you can get hard tickets printed out, try to sell them or ask the local music stores to sell them. It gives people a fun activity to go pick up tickets to your show. But don’t pay to play! Don’t work with shady promoters who give you 50 tickets to sell and if you don’t, you have to pay the difference. This is different. This is working with the venue/promoter to have a packed show. 5) You Think The Venue Will Promote
So many bands believe it’s the venue’s responsibility to do 100% of the promotion for their show. Just getting a show listed on a popular venue’s calendar will not bring people out. You can’t expect venues to promote every show – they just have too many! If 4 bands play their club every night, 6 nights a week, that’s 24 bands (or 6 shows) a week. Similar to how if you played every week people (even your hard core fans) would stop caring, the venue’s loyalists aren’t going to come out every night of the week, or even most nights.
Venues put effort into the shows they know they can sell. If you’re unestablished and unknown why should they put their efforts into promoting you. Once you pack their club, the NEXT time you play, I bet they’ll put a bit more effort into promoting your show – like maybe announcing it on Facebook. I’m sure you’ll at least get a Tweet!
6) You Rely Solely On Facebook
People are tired of Facebook events. They get too damn many from too many friends they’ve lost touch with. Of course, Facebook can be a great tool to add to your promo efforts, but it can’t be the ONLY tool you use. Hit the promo from all angles: social media, print posters and flyers, press, radio, sponsorships (like local wine or beer companies are perfect). Inviting all your friends to a Facebook event is only step one.
Print up physical promo materials such as posters and flyers. We live in such a digitized world that receiving an invitation in the physical world is awfully refreshing, especially if it’s given to you by a friend.
7) You Aren’t Going Out Into The World
Weeks leading up to any big show make sure to go out more often. Hit up local shows, big shows, bars, birthday parties that you normally wouldn’t end up attending. Anything. J ust get out and talk to more humans in the physical world. It will inevitably come up that you’re a musician (or if they know you they will ask you when your next show is) and you can whip out a flyer and personally invite them.
Don’t be sleazy about it. You can do it in a conversational manner. A personal invitation in person is incredibly effective. Having a professional looking flyer legitimizes the show. You could even follow up with them with a personal Facebook message, email or text message a couple days before the show to remind them (and it won’t seem completely out of the blue).
Step one is to be great, but if you are great then you deserve to play in front of packed houses! Hopefully these 7 steps help bring you closer to a full-time music career.
Ok. Did everyone read this? Sure some might be true but they forgot a few key things like these next few examples. ;-)
8. Your local biased media sucks and even if you were good, had a booked event, sold advance tickets, had the popularity,,,,,,,,,,,your local biased media would still not give you the time of day. Why? Because they don't care and you don't fit into their personal taste or agenda. Remember, local media here is narrow minded. I will lay odds that local media has never listened to most of the music put out by local artists. I know they haven't listened to my material. ;-) How many have sent CD's or links to the media and not got any response from them? How much effort does it take to click a single link and listen to one song so you know what you are missing or ignoring? They just don't care and never will. This is not a sour grapes thing. Some in the media would like you to believe that. They don't comprehend that the bands or musicians they ignore, actually play steady, record and sell music continuously, make money at it and more so, make a living at it. These musicians would just like some help to move up to the next level. It's simple. Media press can assist in that.
9. Sometimes bands don't get an audience because of the venue itself. Bad bars get a negative reputation just like some bands. ;-) Locally, there are a few bad venues. ;-) Sometimes the bars have the media in their pocket and the rest get nil.
10. In our area, local radio can be blamed for poor turn outs for bands because of their stagnant broadcasting of minimal songs in short rotations. If people received more types of music in our local area, they might be turned onto a completely different style. That would be called "variety" for those in the media that don't understand the term. ;-) Also, local radio gives "zero" support to local artists who record and sell their own original music.. Imagine one hour set aside for local musicians to showcase just one song a night in that hour. That would be the best. Damn I miss pirate radio. :-)
In closing.. we know the good bands locally, and even if they aren't the best, or great, they still deserve an audience and they deserve support, and that goes out to local media. You can't say "some bands don't deserve press" when you print about a new business just starting with no track record what so ever. How the hell do you know if they're good or not if they just started this business? Same as a band. How do you know what band or musician is deserving of press when you don't even listen to their music or give them the time of day to understand what they're about. Yapping your guts out from a little safety sphere and slobbering over your 4 favourite bands does not in any way shape or form make local media, "reporting dynamos" like they seem to think they are. It makes them a biased lazy bunch of snots. Did I not mention that before? :-) Take the big fat egos out of your ass and ... do the right thing. Spread the press around. Help give everyone a chance to inch forward. Oh.. and listen to the music of the musicians you snub. You may like it, god forbid.
|
|
|
Post by Sgt. Bilko on Feb 1, 2014 23:51:29 GMT -5
Thanks for replying Rob. It just felt like the Lop Lops guying was jumping Freq's thread and trying to smother it with bar propaganda. Staying neutral or riding the fence doesn't really help in my opinion especially if you're trying to gain ground. Hopefully, you and Freq are gaining ground as the field is very uneven. Most of us don't really see any wins for metal or rock in general with local media. The same can be said for Country music. Media created this mess of sorts and that Stephen guy feeds off of it. He loses nothing.
|
|
|
Post by floyds machine on Feb 3, 2014 9:13:22 GMT -5
Oh he was pushing his bar alright. He just couldn't keep the thread focus on media. I couldn't roll my eyes in my head enough. My eyes felt like those little fruit pictures spinning in a slot machine.
|
|