The Music Economy

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 21: The Artist

I am managing “Band A” for one year, because I’m fascinated by the music economy, and by the question of how artists become economically self-sufficient. (Quick aside – in a functioning music economy, like the CBGBs scene or England in the 80s, we would have more than bands supporting and inspiring each other. There would be minor labels, management, producers, experienced individuals who would help create that pathway for bands.) What we do have at this local scene is a number of killer bands who show up for each other, and we also have fantastic artists and photographers documenting and creating art inspired by the scene.
Lee Vee Levy of Rock Photography of Levy has created tour posters and album covers for everyone from The Black Crowes to Asheville’s own Daydream Creatures – beautiful cover. Bands need to think about how they present themselves – music releases and posters – and think about what they can sell. We get into the basics of band/artist economy: merch. If you play a transcendental spirit elevating show, it’s not so difficult to sell an extra $100 of merch afterwards. Just make it a good t-shirt – and bring a light so fans can see the merch. Also leave the artists alone for posters and album covers: you hire an artist to be an artist.
Levy has a show at the Push Skate Shop this June 28. Described as an experimental art mashups of 50’s – 90’s Television & Film. These are the shows and films we loved growing up, remixed with a highly creative and fresh approach to the abstract. Local OG Quinn Powers will be providing music. Levy has been digging into his insanity for a while – and has something like 20 new pieces for this show. Artists make a scene.
This is the link to the art show:
https://www.facebook.com/events/347463172564909.
This is the video interview: 4 Questions in 5 Minutes with Levy: (Sound is a little sketch cause we used Facetime… also nice shout-out to Sane Voids and Thee Sidewalk Surfers) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt-Dei6u0JI&fbclid=IwAR0gE7apr9CUFDO8SdgWViQGx-VeyTAkgkAvY4Tm-0B2hwlIqzqo21JC7pk

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 20: The Tooth and the Label.

The Music Economy

I am managing a band for a year – “Band A.” I am attaching photos just so there is proof of this next part of the story: How I had toothache and how “Band A” got on a label…
Fact 1: A few months ago I got smacked in the face with a soccer ball and I chipped my back, left, upper molar. It was irritating and made me especially irritable on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. (I went to the dentist on Monday and he said I’d lost half my molar and this morning he sawed the remaining molar in two pieces and yanked it out – photos included.)
Fact 2: “Band A” played at a brewery on Sunday afternoon. One member was out of the country, two members were interested, and two members were not so interested. I went to the Saturday practice and no one wanted to play drums and no one could agree to a set list. There was no center to the band. So on Saturday evening I sent a text around saying my tooth was hurting and I wasn’t going to show up to the brewery show on Sunday either. Then the two members who didn’t want to play – suddenly did want to play. I guess I was being annoying AF. (Derek Allen and Derek Frye can speak at length on this subject.)
Then on Sunday morning, when everything seemed bleak and painful, and I was being a total drama queen, I received an email from KK Records wanting to release an EP by “Band A” – image of email also included.
I checked them out – they have good bands on their roster. (I’ll post the redacted correspondence between me and the label on instagram.) For example The Painkillers are great – check out their song “Tomorrow” – https://kafadankontak.bandcamp.com/track/tomorrow. We’re playing The Painkillers guys on the Holy Crap Records podcast this week. (Funny, cause now I’m on painkillers.)
The label is Kafadan Kontak Records out of Istanbul, Turkey – for real – and they’re putting out a roster of garage rock bands. They said they can book us a tour in Turkey. And they’ve asked for four songs to release on an EP. Check them out: https://kafadankontak.bandcamp.com/..
Anyway, whatever happens, I will be documenting it…

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 19: Dauntless Promotions

This year I am managing “Band A.” The stated goals are to get “Band A” onto a record label, to play at a festival, and to get 100 people to a regular show. I started this investigation because no one seemed to understand the current music business. Bands don’t seem to know how to get on radio, how to put together a tour, how to get press, and how to get onto a label. Basically, bands and artists don’t know how to create a sustainable business out of music.
I started to research these questions and the first article that was clear concise and helpful was by John Richards of KEXP titled “Getting Airplay.” (https://www.kexp.org/about/getting-airplay/) This essay mentioned “promotion companies” – which I just kind of understand, like I kind of understand what “booking agents” do… John Richards listed promotion companies he likes and trusts – these are the companies that have a relationship with KEXP – companies like Dauntless Promotions, and Jennifer Daunt. John Richards said that it was worth it for a band to hire a promotions company if a band was on tour and they wanted to saturate the press and radio before a show.
So Dauntless Promotions represents courtney barnett, Sharon Van Etten – a bunch of truly bad ass artists – and Jennifer was kind enough to chat with Holy Crap Records Podcast. In this interview, Jennifer talks about getting radio play, how Spotify has become the most important medium, and that building a buzz in your local scene is still the best way for a band to get noticed. (Also – this is the Dauntless Records Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6jwJLJKSFRUNSqtp5qjmq1?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open)

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 18: The Nitty and The Gritty

The Music Economy

The nitty and gritting of getting a record out. Band management is not all-sexiness, all-the-time. Although, my style of band management is mostly being sexy all-the-time. How do you get your music out into the world? In physical form and on major online platforms? (Most of you know this sh*t already.) And what are you paying? And why are these sites and interfaces so f*cking annoying?”Band A” released a new album. The lead single is being played on the radio in a few markets – so I need to get it on the most popular online platforms right away? iTunes? Spotify? I’m using Tunecore to help me. It costs about $30 to release an album – and they’ll distribute it over a whole bunch of platforms, and deal with a bunch of stuff I don’t understand. Great right? Except Tunecore is annoying the hell out of me. Tunecore asks you to lists the songwriters, which I did in the classical format: “Rose/Gibbons/Justice/Kennedy/Kennedy” – for example. But that wasn’t right. Tunecore wants each person who contributed to the song to get a different line. So I went back into the interface and corrected it. Then I sent the guys at Tunecore an email saying I made the corrections. They didn’t give a crap. Did it about a week ago – and they haven’t done anything to acknowledge I’ve made the changes. Some radio stations have asked “Band A” for CDs – and some of the publication will want a package in the mail, with a CD, a one-shit-er, some merch – so we’re printing 50 CDs using CDBaby. Which costs $156.94. $3 a CD. We could print more, but no one buys them. CDBaby has one very annoying aspect to their interface. Graphics. The cover and packaging needs to fit their specs, which means you need to download their specs on Adobe Illustrator, and then you have to learn how to use the program if you want to upload graphics. And they’ll come back to you, all bitchy, and tell you you’re made shitty design. Come on. Anyway, that’s what I did for “Band A” this week. Also, here is the letter I wrote to 25 radio stations (college and independent) and 3 stations wrote back to say they liked the song. And here’s come additional paperwork on costs and interfaces…

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 17: Album Release Party

The Music Economy

“Band A” had their album release party on Thursday night. I inflated 99 helium balloons. I actually inflated about 50 balloons, made the band blow up 25 balloons and toss them around, and that was it. It looked like a demented kids birthday party – especially as the bass player, who resembles a grumpy Bilbo Baggins, wore a floral frock and combat boots. The stage dynamic is based on the bass player trying to steal some attention from the much more glamorous lead singer – and failing. The drummer is a total maniac. And the two guitarists roll their eyes at this foolishness. But it works.
“Band A” is a pop band. That’s how I describe them now – new wave, garage rock, as catchy and as poppy as anything from the indie 80s scene. An updating of the 80s underground, like The Strokes or Sharon Van Etten’s latest album. I handed out cards with codes to download “Band A’s” first two albums. The singer made buttons to pass out. A few friends jumped up on stage with them. It was the best show in months.
So what now in terms of band management? Well, sending out their single to college radio stations has worked. I sent out emails to 25 stations and it is on rotation at 2 stations. The music director of the largest indie radio station in NYC has shared the song with her DJs. The first album review will be out at the end of June. And then I take this information to more radio stations, to get more reviews, to get them to play at festivals, onto an indie label, one million dollars… I’m ordering 50 CDs because some radio stations actually ask for CDs.
So what now in terms of this blog? I was talking about this with Cinnamon Kennedy on the way to see Wyla and Fantømex show at the Sly Grog Lounge on Saturday night. Musicians/artists are no good at this. Interacting with radio stations, publications, labels. Management is the opposite of creativity. But I’ve worked with the New York Times, sat at meetings with them. I know how to speak their language, to tell them a story they want to hear. This is what I want for my favorite bands – you know who you are – I want you to just be artists, to just make music, to beat the system and win. I am going to take screen shots of my emails to the radio stations, a list of the stations I approached, their responses, my interactions with publications, put it all up on instagram and the website… Someday Holy Crap Records may be a label – and this year long investigation into management may lead to that – but in the meantime I want to give you everything I have done, if you want to copy it, or not…

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 16: Jessi Frick, Father/Daughter Records

The Music Economy

Band Management: Blog 16: Father/Daughter Records So I had the great privilege to interview Jessi Frick of Father/Daughter Records this week. You don’t understand the significance of this label to me. I’ve always been into music, none-mainstream, punk, underground music, Velvet Underground – but about six-or-seven years ago I became obsessed with searching for the underground music scene of right now. I’d check out obscure staff picks in obscure music publications. Check out obscure musical recommendations from friends. These were bands like: The Pack AD, JAPANDROIDS, Sunflower Bean and Diet Cig. Diet Cig sing “fuck your Ivy League sweater” and I’m a faculty brat from Yale – so yeah: fuck your Ivy League sweater! And then I started to dig around to see how Diet Cig was managing to tour and sell their music. They were signed to Father/Daughter Records, which is Jessi Frick and her father! They’ve collected a fantastic group of mainly indie pop punk art punk women voices. I loved that Father/Daughter seemed to appear fully formed, had great traction with the music media, and were so supportive of their bands. So I used this interview series to contact Jessi – just because I have been curious for years about her label.
Back to my management of “Band A” – they are about to be played in another music market. I didn’t know getting on the radio was so easy. This is from XXXX:JP, thanks for contacting us. Enjoying XXX XXXXXX as I type!Would you send us some of your music through our submission process? I am copying XXXXX and XXX, and they would likely enjoy the band too.Yours in music.XXX XXXXXXXX

4 Questions in 5 Minutes: Jessi Frick, Father/Daughter Records

The Music Economy

Jessi Frick of Father/Daughter Records talks about the role of the independent label in the music market place.

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 12: John Richards, KEXP

The Music Economy

I am managing “Band A” for one year. I believe in their music and want to get them a bigger audience. How will I do this? My secret is that I started stealing ideas from the influential essay, “Getting Airplay,” by John Richards of KEXP.
Read it here: https://kexp.org/about/getting-airplay/
It talks about approaching college radio stations, how to successfully approach those radio stations, writing a one-sheet, working with promotion companies…
I’ve been following his instructions for “Band A” – and it seems to be working. “Band A” is on rotation on KPSU and their first review will be out on June 27.
So I reached out to John and asked him to be on the “4 Questions in 5 Minutes” video series for the Holy Crap Records Podcast.
It was great – he started telling me a story about a band that sent him their release with a number of unpacked hotdogs in the same envelope – and I forgot to hit the record button until after the story was over. Full disclosure, I am in a band called the Egg Eaters and about 3 years ago we had plans to send our latest release with an egg sandwich to radio stations, labels, and publications. When you’re in a band – you’re brain doesn’t work. It seemed like a genius idea at the time and now seems like the fastest way to get your release thrown in the garbage.
Anyway, I am even more grateful to John after the conversation – where he talks about why the music industry should be kind to artists, how Macklemore, Fleet Foxes, and Nirvana approached KEXP to get their releases played, and what he would do to get exposure if he was starting a new band..

4 Questions in 5 Minutes: John Richards, KEXP

Artist Interviews, The Music Economy

John Richards, host and producer of The Morning Show for KEXP, creator of International Clash Day, wrote the influential essay “Getting Airplay. ” Holy Crap Records Podcast interviews John about how bands can get their music played on the radio.

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