Five Things Every Cover Band Needs To Know

You’ve got to know how to play your axe. But what else do you need to do to get out of the practice room and onto the stage, especially when you’re playing other people’s music? Cover bands have an extra challenge when they perform: Everyone in the room already has an idea of what the song is supposed to sound like. Here are Five Things Every Cover Band Needs to Know:

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Sonic Youth & Romantic Relationships

So Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore are breaking up.  This one didn’t hit me too hard as I was never a huge Sonic Youth fan (just a guy who liked some of their music), but back 15 years ago when Michael Gira & Jarboe of Swans broke up it really threw me for a loop as far as the hope of ever being able to find that ideal relationship of either (a) two equals that are successful artistic individuals (I’m not going to get into the debate about how many people are willing to shush off Jarboe & Gordon as tagalongs as I think it’s false) or (b) the ability of a semi-broken man (representing myself) to somehow ensnare an angel.  Of course both of these things are wrong & about celebrity worship, but when you’re someone obsessed with music it’s really hard to find any role models that present themselves as being in any kind of successful romantic relationship that doesn’t seem detrimental to their art.  There have been a couple minor rock star couples I’ve been friends with that have made me retain hope for the dream (in fact I did a series of interviews with them a few years ago in QRD), but also see the reality of the everyday problems in any relationship because in the end we’re all just people, which unfortunately kills the dream of one day rising up to having some kind of ideal indie rock god life.

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Brian John Mitchell has run Silber Records since 1996 & the zine gone webzine QRD since 1994.  He is perhaps best known for his music in the band Remora.  He runs a daily blog about running a label where this article originally appeared.

7 Tips For Maintaining Relationships In The Music Business

In my dealings and conversations with successful artists, managers, labels, and other industry workers, it has become abundantly clear that increasing your chance of success can be done by embracing two very simple concepts: create great music, and develop great relationships.

Unfortunately, the second half of that equation is sometimes (mis)labeled as simply ‘who you know,’ which implies that an existing connection is required in order to succeed. Sure, having an uncle that works for a label, or having a friend from high school who is now the guitar tech for Coldplay can help, but that’s rare. Those who have succeeded have done so by working hard at developing, and maintaining, great relationships with those they work with.

Here are some tips for developing contacts with meaning:

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Relationships Are The New Distribution

Social Media superhero Chris Brogan recently wrote a post on the basics – the 4 P’s of marketing(product, price, place, and promotion) and talked about how many people don’t spend enough time on their Product, and try to make up for it in Promotion. If that doesn’t work they try competing on Price. But rarely is much time spent thinking about Place.

This got me thinking about how music is marketed, and how absolutely right he is. A lot of indie musicians tend to spend the majority of their time on Product and Promotion, with Price usually being the standard $0.99 per track. The common mistake is in thinking that Place, which is your distribution, is taken care of once you’ve gotten your music up on iTunes or Bandcamp.

I think we need to start thinking of distribution as more than just where people download or buy your music from, and maybe shuffle a few P’s around in the process.

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Are Paid Subscriptions the Future for Fan to Artist Relationships?

With musicians scrambling for new ways to monetize their content, some companies and artists are creating new ways to interact with their fans and make music a viable career. A subscription plan for fans to build relationships with their favorite artists is an interesting concept for future business models in the music industry. As more and more artists decide to go this route, we will see if it becomes an efficient way for artists to make a living.

Last year I came across a website called MyBandStock that promises exclusive access to your favorite artists. Fans become shareholders in the artists of their choosing and are then given perks and preferred access to exclusive media, meet and greets, mobile apps, pre-sale concert tickets, and more. Although they have not yet finished developing the entire site or making deals with some of their first artists, the MyBandStock team have secured an undisclosed amount of funding for their project and opened up a Los Angeles office. One question that comes to mind is whether this is something the fans actually want to participate in.

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