smy1
Member
Yea it is. The (e)book is GREAT. Well worth the price. It's like 400-500 pages. And all of it is useful. I've been around for almost 15 years, but a lot of the stuff I never thought about/didn't know ...
Let's talk about LABELS. I'm researching for my own bands and need advice!
- Thread starter Erik Monsonis
- Start date
Yea it is. The (e)book is GREAT. Well worth the price. It's like 400-500 pages. And all of it is useful. I've been around for almost 15 years, but a lot of the stuff I never thought about/didn't know ...
HeadCrusher
Member
Charlie, sorry, I had that book in mind but I thought I'd read about it in another thread. It's on my Amazon Wishlist now. Though I'll probably try and check it out in a store. There seems to be an Edition that covers specific topics of the region I live in. Have to see if that's worth it or if I'd rather stick with the original edition.
Ordering "Tour: Smart" now.
Ordering "Tour: Smart" now.
This is what I am going to do:
Sean McGrath wrote:
Hi, I'm Sean McGrath, and I'm in the Death Metal band Impaled. We've been asked to do a "blog" (short for Internet Web Based Log) by Decibel Magazine (short for Relapse Records Mouthpiece), and though I usually shy away from such things, or more accurately, back away from them while forming the sign of the cross with my fingers, I thought it might be a good chance to lay bare a few well kept secrets about the music industry to those young and impressionable musicians who might have been fooled into thinking that signing a contract with a label is a great honor and priviledge.
In this day and age, record labels can do very little for you that you cannot do yourself with some hard work, talent, and ingenuity. Let's assume that you already have talent. That cuts out seventy five percent of you. You can leave. The rest of you; please read on. This is the standard operating procedure for most labels:
Let's pretend there's a young Death Metal band. Let's call this band... I don't know...Injected Feces. That's pretty good. And it's copyrighted, so don't get any ideas. So, Injected Feces has been around for a year or so, played some good shows, garnered some good reviews, done a decent demo, and gets a little interest from some labels. "Awesome!" thinks Injected Feces, "We're going to MAKE IT!". They pick the biggest and best label and sign the contract without having a pro look at it. Who needs lawyers? That's not metal! And hey, the label is offering them $1,500! That's four times what the demo cost! Sounds pretty good so far. Injected Feces goes into the studio and they just squeak by on the 1,500 bucks, but the finished product comes out great (as great as it can coming from, you know, Injected Feces...). The promotion department tells the band this is the best thing they've heard since Colostomy Catheter, and they're sure to sell 40,000 copies. Wow!
Cut to a year later. Injected Feces has taken three months out of their lives to tour the country to promote the album. They had to buy the cds from the label at 6 bucks a pop, but it was worth it. Man, did they sell! At the same time, jobs have been lost. Relationships have been strained or ruined. But the band is doing great! They sold thousands of cds! They must be in the chips, right? I mean, they were mentioned in Decibel and Metal Maniacs! All the same, they wonder why they haven't gotten a financial statement from the label. Ever.
They ask the label to provide a statement and after and few months of cajoling they finally get one. Holy moly, they sold 6,000 cds! There is much rejoicing. But wait, what's this? The label keeps 9 dollars of every cd sold and gives the band 65 cents per cd sold? Well, ok. I mean, they DID put all those ads in those glossy magazines... and that's still almost 6,000 bucks! Hold on... They also charged for the cost of the ads out of the band's royalties?... and they pro rated the phone bill and internet bill and rent and took that from the band's royalties?...and they own the rights to the t-shirt designs?! And on top of that, they've been trading Injected Feces cds for other cds made by bands from other labels, and not reporting those traded cds as sales?
Hmmm...
What a disappointment. Injected Feces only sold 6,000 copies. Sounds like a lot to the band, but it's well below the 40,000 estimated. I guess they should be dropped from the label. Not profitable enough. After an initial investment of 1,500 dollars, they only raked in 54,000 dollars for the label. The good thing is, the label owns Injected Feces catalog entire. They signed it away! The material will never see the light of day again if the label does not will it.
Now let's look at the other option.
Injected Feces has a bit of a following. They put out a demo. They do as many interviews in fanzines as they can. They try to get on shows with every touring band they can and make connections with the members and the promoters. They hook up with some out of state bands, do some split releases, talk their way onto some compilation cds and into some bigger magazines, do a few DIY tours, have a decent website that offers free downloads of their music and interesting artwork. Injected Feces now has a name.
They scrape together three thousand dollars, record a cd, and press it themselves. They sell 1,000 cds on a DIY tour at 10 dollars a pop. 10,000 dollars goes to paying for gas, strings, a new tire to replace the one that blew out, a new guitar to replace the one that broke when that dude moshed into it, your drummer's rent when he's short, fliers, beer, a new banner, and not one fucking cent goes to some weasely prick in an office telling them how awesome they are.
Option number two is the future of underground metal.
Sean McGrath wrote:
Hi, I'm Sean McGrath, and I'm in the Death Metal band Impaled. We've been asked to do a "blog" (short for Internet Web Based Log) by Decibel Magazine (short for Relapse Records Mouthpiece), and though I usually shy away from such things, or more accurately, back away from them while forming the sign of the cross with my fingers, I thought it might be a good chance to lay bare a few well kept secrets about the music industry to those young and impressionable musicians who might have been fooled into thinking that signing a contract with a label is a great honor and priviledge.
In this day and age, record labels can do very little for you that you cannot do yourself with some hard work, talent, and ingenuity. Let's assume that you already have talent. That cuts out seventy five percent of you. You can leave. The rest of you; please read on. This is the standard operating procedure for most labels:
Let's pretend there's a young Death Metal band. Let's call this band... I don't know...Injected Feces. That's pretty good. And it's copyrighted, so don't get any ideas. So, Injected Feces has been around for a year or so, played some good shows, garnered some good reviews, done a decent demo, and gets a little interest from some labels. "Awesome!" thinks Injected Feces, "We're going to MAKE IT!". They pick the biggest and best label and sign the contract without having a pro look at it. Who needs lawyers? That's not metal! And hey, the label is offering them $1,500! That's four times what the demo cost! Sounds pretty good so far. Injected Feces goes into the studio and they just squeak by on the 1,500 bucks, but the finished product comes out great (as great as it can coming from, you know, Injected Feces...). The promotion department tells the band this is the best thing they've heard since Colostomy Catheter, and they're sure to sell 40,000 copies. Wow!
Cut to a year later. Injected Feces has taken three months out of their lives to tour the country to promote the album. They had to buy the cds from the label at 6 bucks a pop, but it was worth it. Man, did they sell! At the same time, jobs have been lost. Relationships have been strained or ruined. But the band is doing great! They sold thousands of cds! They must be in the chips, right? I mean, they were mentioned in Decibel and Metal Maniacs! All the same, they wonder why they haven't gotten a financial statement from the label. Ever.
They ask the label to provide a statement and after and few months of cajoling they finally get one. Holy moly, they sold 6,000 cds! There is much rejoicing. But wait, what's this? The label keeps 9 dollars of every cd sold and gives the band 65 cents per cd sold? Well, ok. I mean, they DID put all those ads in those glossy magazines... and that's still almost 6,000 bucks! Hold on... They also charged for the cost of the ads out of the band's royalties?... and they pro rated the phone bill and internet bill and rent and took that from the band's royalties?...and they own the rights to the t-shirt designs?! And on top of that, they've been trading Injected Feces cds for other cds made by bands from other labels, and not reporting those traded cds as sales?
Hmmm...
What a disappointment. Injected Feces only sold 6,000 copies. Sounds like a lot to the band, but it's well below the 40,000 estimated. I guess they should be dropped from the label. Not profitable enough. After an initial investment of 1,500 dollars, they only raked in 54,000 dollars for the label. The good thing is, the label owns Injected Feces catalog entire. They signed it away! The material will never see the light of day again if the label does not will it.
Now let's look at the other option.
Injected Feces has a bit of a following. They put out a demo. They do as many interviews in fanzines as they can. They try to get on shows with every touring band they can and make connections with the members and the promoters. They hook up with some out of state bands, do some split releases, talk their way onto some compilation cds and into some bigger magazines, do a few DIY tours, have a decent website that offers free downloads of their music and interesting artwork. Injected Feces now has a name.
They scrape together three thousand dollars, record a cd, and press it themselves. They sell 1,000 cds on a DIY tour at 10 dollars a pop. 10,000 dollars goes to paying for gas, strings, a new tire to replace the one that blew out, a new guitar to replace the one that broke when that dude moshed into it, your drummer's rent when he's short, fliers, beer, a new banner, and not one fucking cent goes to some weasely prick in an office telling them how awesome they are.
Option number two is the future of underground metal.
Force666
Member
- Sep 12, 2007
- 1,096
- 0
- 36
Just reads like a little bit of bitterness seeing as Impaled struck a deal with Century Media and got dropped. Live and learn I guess. I believe there's a certain level a band can get to that the big labels make sense. But, if you don't achieve that level of success, it doesn't work out so good. I mean that's pretty much what business is all about.
egan.
daylightdies.com
Yeah, I mean those have been the two options for a long time now. The same rules stand regardless of the path....You have to have a rich combination of musical skill, business skill, timing and luck. The assumption that DIY "is the future" is at least as old as I am and if history is any guide the folks who are great at DIY either end up starting a label or end up signing with a label once they have sales to bolster a stronger negotiating position.
edit: Does Relapse really own Decibel?
edit: Does Relapse really own Decibel?
smy1
Member
Egan has a big point there. Labels are necessary and can help you IF they have LARGE amounts of money to put into you. Talking about majors and major indies.
In other cases I would rather DIY if I have the skill. Here's a simple test if your band is fit to DIY:
1) Make a budget for 10000 Euros for a record that is supposed to be released 18 months from now. This will enable you to press, advertise and tour for this record. It will also give you enough time to write songs, rehearse, demo them, make photos, artwork, a new website and book gigs.
2) 10000 Euros divided by 5 bandmembers is 2000 Euros per person.
3) The record needs to be pressed a year from now. 2000 Euros divided by 12 months is 167 Euros.
4) So every bandmember needs to save up 167 Euros a month and put it in the band account for 12 months in a row.
If that seems unfeasible, your band is not fit to release DIY properly. This would include 90% of all bands.
In other cases I would rather DIY if I have the skill. Here's a simple test if your band is fit to DIY:
1) Make a budget for 10000 Euros for a record that is supposed to be released 18 months from now. This will enable you to press, advertise and tour for this record. It will also give you enough time to write songs, rehearse, demo them, make photos, artwork, a new website and book gigs.
2) 10000 Euros divided by 5 bandmembers is 2000 Euros per person.
3) The record needs to be pressed a year from now. 2000 Euros divided by 12 months is 167 Euros.
4) So every bandmember needs to save up 167 Euros a month and put it in the band account for 12 months in a row.
If that seems unfeasible, your band is not fit to release DIY properly. This would include 90% of all bands.
HeadCrusher
Member
smy1* brought up another important point: the schedule. 18 months seems to be a good amount of time to prepare all the necessary things. Anybody got a sample schedule they worked with? I guess one would have to start a few things at the same time to make it work.
*i know your real name but i'm not sure how to spell it. so before i get it wrong i'll stick to your screenname, haha.
*i know your real name but i'm not sure how to spell it. so before i get it wrong i'll stick to your screenname, haha.
