Articles & Advice
At virtually every ASCAP showcase, workshop, or seminar we hold, one question dangles in the air like a skywriter's vapor trail: "How do I get a record deal?" Of course, it's like asking how to get a job, a date or a clue: every situation is different, there are no rules, and so many different factors have to be aligned that an astrological approach might be more effective.
One day a couple of months ago, I heard the most focused version of that question yet.
"Hi, my name is John Keane, I'm in a band from Boston called Nok. We're getting good college radio airplay and we're starting to get some label interest. I saw your article in Playback and I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions."
It turned out that, largely through his ability to ask a focused question, John and his band had managed to drum up an impressive amount of interest with virtually no contacts or insider information about the music business. He hadn't even read any books about it. John had two advantages that many creators don't — a background in marketing, and a niche market (hard rock) — but much of what he and the band did could be applied to any business.
What follows is not a definitive "how-to promote your band" article — there are many fine books on that topic listed in our Resource Guide — but there is a lot of good advice, particularly for people who don't know where to begin.
Like so many things in life, you can be doing everything right and still not get a record deal — at press time, Nok still hadn't gotten one, although John did say that this article was drumming up even more interest — but at least this band knows that they've done everything they could to improve their chances.
[In the interest of readability, the following is a heavily edited, Frankenstein-type combination of John and Jem's quotes.]
|
Where Can I Get a Story?
I asked everyone I knew, "How do bands get signed?," and no one could give me a real answer. It sometimes feels like the information is being kept from you, because the most you'll hear is "Make a name for yourself," "Create a buzz" or a "story," "Play out a lot." Well, there are a lot of places to play in Boston, but heavy bands can't get booked on weekends, and how many record executives are gonna see us play in front of 30 people on a Monday? So we had to find other ways.
Anatomy of a Splash
Successful new bands seem to come out of nowhere, and suddenly they're everywhere: radio, video, stores, touring, posters, merchandise, their logo is everywhere, and it all seems to happen at once. The timing is so crucial — if you hear the same name X number of times in X number of days, you'll finally say, "Who are they?" We scheduled everything to happen around the release of our first album, but it took a year to get everything in place: our merchandise, the P.O. box, the phone number, the web page, the fax, the e-mail, and writing songs, making the album and playing over 50 shows. If you can coordinate publicity, airplay, distribution and live shows, you're in as good a position as a signed artist. Your band becomes its own industry, and how well it runs reflects on you almost as much as the music. Look carefully at the things that signed bands are doing: most bands can do all of those things, just on a smaller scale.
Having said all of that, you've got to know that it's real. Before we did any of this, we played a lot of shows to a lot of different audiences, and we got such a tremendous response — I've been in other bands that didn't get anything like this response, so all of this work would have been a waste of time and money. We also made sure we were 100% ready as a band: our live show was tight, and we made sure that we had enough material to make an album — that's not ten songs, that's 25 for a label to choose ten or twelve from.
Radio
Specialty radio is one of the best ways for an unknown band to get their name out, and hard rock radio is one of the biggest and most established specialty radio formats: there are over 300 stations with hard rock shows, and several radio trade magazines have charts that are basically a national barometer for what's going on.
We hired an independent radio promotion company to promote our CD to hard rock radio because I'd learned that we wouldn't really get anywhere without one: nothing really happens at radio without a push, and we're an unsigned band with our first release. It worked: when your record gets on those charts, it attracts the interest of labels and people start talking about you — and that sure as hell happened for us. The first week is an "add" [to radio playlist] week, and we were Top 5 most-added, so I was getting phone calls on the day that the charts were printed. We eventually got to #16 on CMJ's chart, which is pretty good for an unsigned band. There are radio promoters and charts for almost every style of music.
Product
Distribution is also key, but it's very hard for a band that no one's heard of. I could not get good distribution before the CD came out — it's a catch-22, because you can't get distribution if no one's heard of you, but how is anyone supposed to hear you if they can't find your CD? Once we got the radio numbers and all that, it was no problem. Use whatever method you can to get distribution, if your friend has a label with distribution, whatever.
Also, be sure to get a bar code so that your sales will be detected by SoundScan. So many people read those charts, and if you start selling a decent number of CDs, labels definitely notice — major labels sometimes have whole departments that analyze SoundScan and call record stores all day. A band from around here that I always thought was terrible got signed, and the label found them through a SoundScan chart. Just call the Uniform Code Council.
Press
Publicity is one of the most important elements, but, like distribution, the press has to have a reason to care about you. Once we got the radio chart numbers, it was easy to get an independent publicist. I think press is a situation similar to radio: if you just send them your CD in an envelope, they probably won't listen to it, but they will if it's sent from a publicist they know. Having someone listen to the music is really all you can ask for.
Have a Clue
It helps if you're articulate — a lot of band members might talk to executives like they're talking to other musicians. I explain right up front my reason for calling — and I never call without a particular reason — and I'll always say, "I don't know if you can help me, maybe you could refer me to someone else?" That gives them an out — people don't like to be put on the spot. If it's phrased like "I ran into such-and-such situation, can you give me some advice?" — rather than "I want to get a record deal" — most people will be willing to help. Break it down: I need to do this, who do I call? And the more people you know, the more you do, the more resources you have.
Never forget that it's business: a lot of these people don't know where their next success or client or even their next check is coming from, so simple business sense dictates that they'll probably at least call back. I've also found people at record labels to be very accessible. When we were looking for producers I called the Warner Bros. Records main number, talked to someone who transferred me to the A&R department, and that person faxed me a list of producers' managers — I mean the top producers in the business! So I called them and said, "I'm looking to hire a producer" — not "I'm looking for a producer to help get me a deal" — "I have this much in my budget, do you have anyone who works with our kind of music?" They sent me a list, and they sent around our tape to their producers. So after a couple of phone calls and a few stamps, people like [Soundgarden producer] Terry Date and [Tool producer] Sylvia Massey had received our tape from one of the best possible sources: their manager. We didn't get our producer that way, but it just shows that if you're not a total schmuck, people will work with you.
Call the Law
One way to get through to labels is through an attorney. A lot of them will shop your band to labels for a fee — like $500 or $1000 and if you get signed, they take 20%. It's also a quick way for someone to say they're going to shop you and make a quick $500 or $1000. When that method works, it's only when it's part of a bigger plan.
I looked at the CD liner notes of some bands that I respect and wrote down their lawyers' names, and then looked in the Recording Industry Sourcebook (the CMJ Directory is also really good) [See Part Four of ASCAP's Guide to Resources for contact information] and matched up the names with the firms. So that way I was calling for a specific person, I got straight to their office, and, again, I had a very direct question: "I have [a prospective manager] who wants to shop our band and he just faxed me a contract. I know you work with so-and-so and I got your number from the Sourcebook," etc. They can tell from the tone of your voice and the questions you ask that you're serious. So I sent him a package, he called back and said, "I have a few people who might be interested" — boom. We have an attorney.
It Can't Hurt to Try
It's very easy to get an inferiority complex and think you don't have anything to offer, when you do. It can't hurt to try. And the more you do on your own, the more you have to offer. In the entire time I've been in this band, I have not once "submitted" a demo — and at this point, most of the labels have our demo. It was either sent to them by our radio promotion company, or a radio station sent it to them, or someone who was shopping us sent it to them, or the label called us and requested one.
Every band has advantages — whether one member has an ability to talk to people, or another knows every musician in town, or another member's brother owns a studio, or you're all good cooks and you can raise band money with a band bake sale! Whatever, you have to use those advantages as much as possible. I think the vast majority of musicians complain that they can't get a deal or that everyone else has it so much easier than them, and they don't do anything about it! I mean, we've got a lot going against us, but we're doing well. People say we're lucky, but all of this came from sheer effort. You just find other ways of getting these things done, and the more you do on your own, the further you'll go. It's been a lot of hours and hard work, but now we have a team: publicity, radio, lawyer. So if and when we do get signed, I have a team that I have relationship with and I know I can trust, as opposed to flying out to LA and meeting the people that are going to make or break your career for the first time without even knowing if they're any good!
There's this kid named Jason in North Carolina. The day our CD went to radio, I got an e-mail from him, "I heard your CD on the radio today, I called the station, I think you guys are great, Where can I buy your CD?" So I sent him an e-mail saying that he was the first person to get in touch with us from the radio, and I'd send him a CD, so I did, along with some stickers and stuff. A week later, I got an e-mail from him with a link in it — he'd built us a web page.
If someone takes the time to get in touch with you to say that they like your music, the least you can do is get back to them — and when you do, things like that can happen. Unsigned bands have so much working against them, but one of your biggest advantages is whatever fans you might have. A lot of these kids almost never get to talk to bands, and the personal touch can go a long way.
Now what?
We charted quite high for an unsigned band, and several labels came to see us play. At one point it seemed like everything was all about to happen — somebody actually said "We want you on the road next week" — and then nothing! Right now, one big label seems really interested — we sent them four more songs and they loved them — we have a couple of others who want to hear more material, and we have a couple who say they need songs that they can take to commercial radio. Our songs are melodic, but if they're asking us to be a different kind of band, we're certainly not going to do it. I mean, we already have jobs, why do we want to make this like work?
For further info on Nok email nokline@aol.com
TOP
|
Do It Yourself, A D.I.Y. Case Study
