Band Marketing Tip: DM. Because you can.

At the moment, DM works. If you want to reach a bar or a promoter or a music magazine, and — importantly — you can figure out the actual right person to talk to, DM them. Here’s why they’ll probably respond: chances are that that person (who is in the business of promotion) is working on building up his or her ‘personal brand’, and people who are building up their ‘personal brand’ are encouraged to respond to all of their messages. (Even all of their comments. It’s a dreary biz.) So, DM them. Note that we’re currently in a window in which people trust the content coming in via that medium, but it won’t last. Probably soon people will hate DM as much as email, but for now they don’t seem to…

Spotify, Pandora, Amazon and Google want to Sue You

Hey, guess what? Music behemoths are forming an army of giants in order to fight you and your band. That is something that you should probably take as a compliment, but it is also, obviously, nuts. Spotify, Pandora, Amazon and Google are literally crying to the DC Court of Appeals that they will go under if they pay artists the 44% increase that the Copyright Royalty Board is asking for over the next four years. We at HLYCRP don’t pay attention to stuff like this as a rule, because it’s bonkers, and also mean. But it’s an interesting slice of where the world is at right now. If you write good songs, or record good music, then you are the ones they’re after… just something to think about. (This image is “The Giant” by Goya.)