Experiment: Band Management: Blog 5: Social Media Fail

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I do love one of those shows when you have to shove the pool table to one side, bring all your own equipment, have no monitors, and all the people at the bar stare at the band like they’re aliens. Of course I didn’t shove the pool table – I’m management. Here’s a plus about “Band A” – they don’t have a hard time getting shows. So generally they’re well behaved, they have songs, and they’re bring a handful of friends along. Lowell Hobbs of Tongues of Fire says that you shouldn’t book too much, that each show should be an event. I’ve heard this from @Derek Allen too. I’d subscribe to that theory if “Band A” was destroying each show. They’ll have a great loose show – and then only four of them will show up and it will be entertaining but not a religious experience. I want to book them shows until they get sulky and arrogant and obnoxious. 
That was the good part of band managing this week. I also failed on social media. How do you reach a larger audience? On Wednesday I paid social media for likes – because I believe 5,000 likes will make it easier to get them on a label, play at festivals, and get 100 people to shows. I paid $5 to social media. “Band A” has +11 likes this week. About 50 cents a like. So that didn’t work. Or maybe the ads need to be smarter?
So how do you get people to listen to this music? Bumperstickers? Music videos? People do like music videos. So a music video, of the band sitting around, or looking artsy and angsty is fine – but “Band A” is having a local show soon and I want all their friends to show up. Because if all their friends show up, they’ll act wild, and then they’ll tell all their friends they’re in a music video. Organic marketing!!! (Please someone get in a fight, or make-out on the dance floor, or at least I hope the smoke machine will be working again…) We’ll see…
Also, looking forward to this week – we will be interviewing Sean from BURGER RECORDS and Jordan from Godless America Records (and hopefully Tristen Colby) for our 4 questions in 5 minutes section.

The Styrofoam Turtles “Pipe”

Introducing The Styrofoam Turtles and their latest song “pipe.” We will be interviewing Tristen for our “4 Questions in 5 minutes” video series this week.

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 4: Easter Sunday

I am a band manager this year. It was a slightly “Murray” experience this weekend. Murray is the band manager for “Flight of the Conchords.” Someone who believes in the band – and then sets them up with shows in aquariums and elevators. I believe in “Band A” – and I stood with maybe a dozen people at the brewery, watching the band, which dwindled to a single family by the end of the second set. But it was great. Two sets of great garage rock. The bass player split his pants. Highlights include addition of synth sounds. Good lead singer and good drummer. The rest of the band could work on their stage presence, but they were loose and having fun. And they have songs. So, the point of this year-long blog is to take this band, “Band A,” and take this music, and propel it toward a much larger audience. After the show “Band A” sat down with the management (me) and wanted to know exactly what I was up to….So first I’m going to buy some “social media” likes. There – I said it. I know a bunch of bands frown on this gauche and obvious behavior. But I’m the manager – and I don’t care. Social media has changed. It used to be that you had a chance at building an organic following. Or something like that – but now social media curates your feed. (That’s why liberals only get liberal news and conservatives get garbage.) Nowadays you basically have to pay to share content, to get those likes. I asked all my friends to like “Band A” – and “Band A” has 242 likes. I am going to buy 5,000 likes. Because I believe that 5,000 likes will make it easier to reach my three goals: get on a label, play at a festival, and draw an audience of 100 people. Let’s see how much it costs and how this goes… Also I need to get their latest album on iTunes and SKYPE…. In other blog news – as you know this blog series is matched with the Holy Crap Records video series “4 Questions in 5 minutes” – when I talk to people in the industry about how to make a band more successful. So I’ve reached out to: Jessica at Co-Sign (Artistic Development Agency), Sean Bohrman at BURGER RECORDS, Godless America Records, Father and Daughter Records, and John Richards at KEXP… (I will also be interviewing Tristen Colby about the scene and touring.)

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 3: The start!

I am managing a band this year. As experiment and story for the Holy Crap Records podcast/magazine, and because this intersects with two of my favorite subjects: 1) underground music and 2) the economics of being an artist. Cinnamon Kennedy pointed out that my blog is actually about “how to be famous” and none of my stated aims are about making money. So we’re gonna run dueling blogs – I’m figuring out fame and she’s figuring out money.

So how do you start? You hear about these starts, right? The Rolling Stones had three shows booked at the same London venue. First night they played. Second night they sold out. Third night there was a line down the block. The B52s played a show in NYC, and then came back a month later to play the same venue and there was a line down the block. That’s how you start!

I am doing an interview each week with bands, radio stations, publicists, booking agents, labels – this week I talked to Lowell Hobbs of Tongues of Fire. TOF are on Godless America Records, have played at SXSW twice, and tour across the south. How did TOF start?

“Our first show was at Tiger Mountain, when they didn’t have DJ nights,” Lowell Hobbs of Tongues of Fire shares. “There were probably 30 people there. It was a nice first show.” How did they get the crowd? “We actually walked the streets of Asheville and just talked to people and brought them in.”

The local music venue, that first venue who gives you your first show, not the The Orange Peel or Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, but the local dive bar – they are the heroes of the entire underground scene. In our area thanks to: The Odditorium, The Mothlight, Fleetwood’s, The Burger Bar, Sly Grog Lounge, The Town Pump Tavern… (For bands looking to book their first show – The Odditorium will sometimes book new bands on Wednesday night and The Mothlight will sometimes book new bands on a Monday night.) Venues like these are the heroes to all local scenes, but they care about two things: 1) the quality of the music and 2) the bottom-line, the size of the crowd.

Also, be nice. To the venue and to your crowd. Tongues of Fire show up to any venue – and the venue knows that a crowd of 20-30 kids will show up too. The kids will push up to the stage, the band will interact with the crowd, and Lowell will dive on top of them. The venues in town want to book TOF again and again.

Having that first packed performance and continuing to bring people to venues has great benefits – for touring and for getting on a label. Venues will book your band when traveling bands come through, and…

How did Lowell put together TOF’s first tour?

“I think we got somebody from Gainesville a show,” Lowell explains, “and since you gave us a show we’ll give you a show in Gainsville. It’s kind of how all our tours work for the most part. Almost all of the bands we’ve played with in different towns is someone we’ve helped out in Asheville.”

Tongues of Fire has that sense of danger, that anything can happen when they have a show. They play local basement and house parties – even getting two house parties shut down on the same night.

So I’m managing another band in the local scene – “Band A” – how do I create that buzz? That sense of danger? That consistent crowd? Band A is playing this weekend. They are playing at a brewery, mid afternoon, outside, and the weather is 58 degrees and blustery. Four of the five members can make the show. What am I doing? I put up one poster. I shared on social media. There was a change in event times – and now I’m literally texting friends to show up…. Also I bought some streamers to hang at the event…. Streamers!!!!

EXPERIMENT: BAND MANAGEMENT: BLOG 2: The Band

I read this somewhere – all an artist needs is a 1,000 fans who are willing to spend $100 a year on the art.

As part of the Holy Crap Records podcast and music magazine content, I am managing a band this year. As an experiment/investigation. “Band A.” The podcast and the magazine will not name the band or use our considerable media clout to promote the band. However, I will be interviewing other bands who are busting out of the underground, music magazines, radio stations, booking agents, publicity agents, and labels – and using their wisdom to promote this band. I will post of Wednesday and on Sunday. I will conduct one interview a week over SKYPE and record it – because I’m too lazy to edit the content it will be a short interview format: 4 questions in 5 minutes! (Gonna try to get Lowell to be my first interview. Lowell!!!) Then I will use all this wisdom to promote “Band A” – and you can use all this info to promote your band too.

The measurable targets are: 1) getting the band on a label, 2) playing at festivals, 3) audience of 100 people.

So who is this band? What are they like? (I’ll be using photos of my bands – so these aren’t clues. I’m sure Derek wouldn’t mind me using photos of him either.) What do they have going for them?

Um. Well they are not the most obvious bet for who will make it out of this scene. Do they have that look in their eyes? Are they hungry? Have they burned their ships? Actually, I’m not sure any of the members would be willing/able to hit the road and go on a sustained national tour, crashing on floors and living in a van. Two of the members have zero social media presence and the third just lingers around facebook to make snarky comments. Most of the members aren’t active in the local music scene, heading out to see live shows, hanging with other bands. (In a later post I will go into detail why being an active member of the local music scene is paramount to making it.) As a matter of fact most of the band has the insolence to believe that all they have to do is make music – and all the bookings and posters and social media is what naturally happens around them. This sounds like a knock, but artists need that self-belief and arrogance, that their art is so beautiful the world should welcome and treasure it.

So what do they have going for them? They have a decent live show. They have a following in a limited geographical area. If they play a hometown show then 20+ people show up every time. And, simply, they have songs. We would play them on Holy Crap Records Podcast. We listen to 50+ bands/songs a week, for five slots on the show, so if we play your song on our podcast we really believe in your song. “Band A” is catchy. They sound a bit like Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” album, that move away from garage and punk to a more pop sound. Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone” is the best pop song ever. And ultimately it all comes down to songs. If you have songs it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, what you’re doing. If you have songs you have art. Art is the most beautifully reciprocal and harmonious giving relationship in the universe. Thank you for writing that song – it moved my spirit. Thank you for listening to my song. Thank you.

“Band A” – they have a song.

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 1

This is me. John from the Holy Crap Records Podcast. We’re right and they’re wrong. Underground music is in a great place. When I say “underground” I mean it in its broadest definition of artists creating their art with a secondary regard to the market. Blues. Punk. Surf. Indie. Garage. Be true to yourself. Make your art! And now let’s be real – underground music is always a scrapper’s place. By definition it is new – and no one knows if new will sell. There is a music industry and the industry is always about the money.

There have only been a handful of moments in modern music history when major labels went actively searching for new music from the underground: the CBGBs scene with bands like The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads getting picked up, London in 1978 when The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Damned got picked, Seattle in the 90s. You get the idea. Big money is not actively trying to find you. Basically, it makes more economic sense to continue to market and sell an act that already has a following.

But underground music is for scrappers and we are in a great place. The underground scene is clearly creating the best music of an era. I could name drop 25 bands that are mind-blowingly great, better than anything on a major label. I could probably name drop 50 bands without trying too hard. I am half of the Holy Crap Records Podcast. So I know. We play the top five best underground songs each week. We listen to about 50+ unsigned (usually) bands a week. All the bands we play recommend other bands. We’re on our 50th show. So I know.

So this is an experiment. I believe great bands and great artists can make a career out of creating music. I talk with bands deep in the underground and those breaking out of the underground. I know some things. I believe in a formula. So I am now managing a band. I will not disclose their name because I don’t want this music magazine/podcast to influence the experiment. “Band A” will be – at a minimum – a legendary underground band in a year, playing at festivals and on an indie label, at least a 100 people at a show.

This is how I’m going to do it: basically I’m gonna try a bunch of shit and do more of the stuff that works and less of the stuff that doesn’t work, and I’m going to document it all. I’m gonna talk with a bunch of bands that are finding success about how they did it, and talk with a bunch of labels, management, publicity companies, music magazines as interviews for “Holy Crap Records Podcast” and use that info to make “Band A” massive. Also, I’m going to buy a bunch of likes on facebook and probably pay for some coverage in the press.

Hypothesis 1: the formula

Have a unique voice and be a nice person.

That’s it. Also listen to good music (Velvet Underground and Lucinda Williams) + find four friends + write your own songs + go to see other bands in the local underground scene ALL the time + practice 3 times a week + play a bunch of shows at friends’ parties or a back porch or in the rear of a restaurant + figure out which clubs have a new band evening + book a show + invite your favorite bands from the scene + be nice + hustle more shows… And this goes on and on… Get FB likes… Put up posters… For fucks sake put up posters… Don’t be lazy… Record a good EP. Put it on bandcamp. Play all the time, everywhere. Then there’s shit like – should you hire a publicity company? When you send your music to college radio stations can you call them up and bother them? But I believe, fundamentally, it comes down to have a unique voice and be a nice person. “Band A” – fuck yeah – they’re awesome. You gotta hear this shit….

How to Get Likes on Facebook for Cheap

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If you’ve been paying attention to the HLYCRP facebook page, you notice that our likes have taken a sharp upturn. You were probably like, “Have they gotten cooler? Or has Cinnamon Kennedy finally hacked the system of Mark Zuckerberg?” The answer is the latter. I figured out how to buy likes, and here’s how you do it (this is so boring, please pretend that John is playing guitar in the background):

-Go to Facebook ads manager

-New campaign

-Set the region to ‘global’ (btw their interface is crazy and upsetting. You might need to watch some youtube videos to get this far.)

-Add a couple of keywords. We chose ‘musician’ and ‘rock music’

-After much experimenting, we found that Facebook heavily favors dumb pictures and dumb text. Ours says ‘Do you like new music? Then Like our page!’ with one still image of John playing guitar. It works improbably well.

-Launch. Bam. Facebook will take a hundred years to approve your ad (particularly if it has the word ‘crap’ in it), and then you’ll start getting around 200 likes a day. The inclusion of places like the Middle East, India and Africa will have you paying less than $.01 per like. You can probably afford that. Next week I will address the question of whether Facebook Likes, particularly those originating from halfway around the world, actually mean anything, whether they do any good, and whether there is a point to spending $.01 on them. My answer to this will be (spoiler alert): maybe.

Be nicer to Bandcamp!

Bandcamp is like the proverbial hometown girlfriend. So easy, and so eager, that often when bands get ‘real’ they stop honoring it with their presence. Bandcamp doesn’t have a playlist feature, and they make you hold the music you buy in weird places (on their site or on your hard drive), and their internal search engine is dreadful. However, the beauty of Bandcamp is its inherent friendliness (much more to artists than to consumers). They make it really, really easy for bands to upload music — the hardest thing you have to figure out is how do an aiff format — and as such, it’s a democratic and a really nice place, for established and especially for unestablished musicians. Bands, don’t forget your roots! One-man-bands, your stuff doesn’t have to stay on Soundcloud! Yes, put your stuff on the big platforms, but don’t forget about who made you, and who taught you to do a 1440×1440 jpg. Bandcamp.