Gibson Music Blog

Open Letter From a Bar Owner to Musicians

A bar, that is, an establishment that earns its revenue primarily from selling alcoholic beverages, measures its success by the ounce and the accounting is done everyday because we mostly live on the edge. So we spend our time trying to figure out how to sell more ounces. It’s not just how many people are in the house or how great the atmosphere is (that’s certainly important), but how many drinks, preferably premium, we sell in a day. That’s it.

Live music is important to most of us (if we have that kind of venue). But it is a significant expense and is only worthwhile if it produces more than it consumes, just like advertising and anything else we spend money on in order to sell more ounces. But so many of the bands that come through here have no clue what their job is. Your job is to sell booze. You’re not here for any other reason.

There are some truly awful bands that actually chase customers away. But there are also some bands I would call mediocre who do a fantastic job of selling my product. There are also some really good bands who rock the house but not the cash drawer. While I appreciate good music and would never have an interest listening to that mediocre band’s lame CD, they’re coming back next week. Here’s why:

1. They play simple music people recognize. People don’t dance to brilliant guitar solos or heady changes, they dance to the hook lyrics of a simple chorus. (If you’ve ever wondered why pop is popular, that’s why). When the ladies want to dance, the guys show up and everybody drinks. Simple truth.

2. They don’t ask me for drinks, they ask my customers. This is a subtle art and if it’s done well, the band can more than pay for itself. Here’s a few obvious techniques: If someone offers to buy the band a round, you order shots of top-shelf. Even if you don’t drink it, ask for it anyway. If someone asks for a request, try to make a deal with them. If you buy (your date, your table, the band) a round, we’ll play your song. Some bands beg for tips, and that’s fine, but it’s not what I’m paying you for. (Try to play request anyway. At least you wont chase them off.) We had one front man hold up a mixed drink and make a wonderfully cheesy but impassioned pitch that you simply had to try this because it was, as he put it, “a glass of pure happiness”. It resulted in over a hundred bucks in the drawer in just a few minutes. Those guys are busy.

3. They may not be the best band in town but they look and act professional. I cringe when I see a supposedly professional band wearing frayed khaki shorts, flip flops, mildly offensive t-shirts and greasy baseball caps (the standard bro uniform). I don’t care if you’re bald, a baseball cap is unacceptable. Live music is a visual form of entertainment. If you dress well, even if it’s hipster, funky, weird or flamboyant, as long as you look like you care about your appearance, and show a little self respect, you’ll go over better with my customers. The good bands also respect their gig and the customers. They show up on time, they don’t make a racket while they setup (hint: keep your drummer quiet especially when the jukebox is on.), they choose their set list carefully, they pace their sets well and stay engaged with the audience (don’t stop playing if the dance floor is full), they don’t get hammered and and they don’t leave a mess. All this adds up to what we call retention. Customers don’t leave. You would be surprised how many customers leave because of the band. And it’s usually not because the band is awful, but because it’s too loud, it’s the wrong repertoire, it’s rude and dismissive, it’s not engaged and basically no fun for anyone else but themselves. And here’s a little tip: Your continued employment is directly dependent on my bartender’s opinion of you. That’s probably true for every single bar you play.

One last thing. It’s hard to find work. You might be surprised at how much competition you have. I get emails, voicemails, regular mail, fed-ex packages left for me, all with earnestly concocted press kits and demos and I ignore almost all of it. I get walk-ins who, if I’m there, I’ll give a few minutes to. Again, you’d be surprised how many show up in their bro-clothes, tell me how awesome they are, and hand me a business card with a URL to their reverb nation page or YouTube channel. They probably go home and wonder why they don’t get a call, but I’m not going to visit your website or listen to your demo. You’ve got maybe 60 seconds to make your “elevator pitch” and just a few more minutes to make it stick. There is a sales technique I’m seeing that’s impressive, stands out and really works, but out of respect for the bands that figured it out, call it a trade secret.

Bottom line: A bar is a business. My bar is my business, my life, my success or failure. What I do in my business is entirely up to me because the risk is entirely mine. If I have a jam night, an open mic, solos, duos, bands, karaoke, or just a jukebox, that’s up to me and no one else. Whatever helps make the most revenue. I have great respect for working musicians and would rather not hire them at all than to short-change them.

The open mic and jams that seem to get so much criticism here are not about me getting free entertainment, they are about bringing in paying customers and keeping them here. People who play and sing, but not in a professional band, like to get out, get a little stage time, have some fun, bring their friends and I offer them the place to do it. And yes, these nights are pretty good for the bottom line. If having bands was better, I’d have bands every night. It’s just reality, man.

http://chrisledrew.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/open-letter-from-a-bar-owner-to-musicians/

The Marketing Money Can’t Buy

Article From http://blog.tunecore.com Too often I see artists playing over and over again with diminishing returns. They’ve essentially worn their friends out, and haven’t done the thing that is most essential to the success of any band: shifted the burden of promotion from themselves to their fans. Without doing this, all bands (or products) eventually fail. There is a ceiling quickly hit when the creator of/company behind a song/product does not shift the burden of promotion from themselves to the fans. They can do all the advertising, marketing, promotion their budgets can withstand, and—for some period of time—will see some impact from this. However, bands/businesses don’t ever break through the ceiling in earnest until some group of these initial fans (call them “early adopters”) begin turning their friends on to the band/business. We call this word of mouth. The promise of social media has always been that this word of mouth marketing can be accelerated via technology. Obviously, as is proven by anything that “goes viral,” it can happen. Something “going viral” is just an extreme example of fans sharing and spreading the object of their fan-dom to their friends (via their social networks, typically) at a heightened rate. It’s not possible to manufacture something that goes viral. Viral-ness, by its very nature, is no longer being promoted by the creator of the product/song/etc., and, therefore, the creator is not in control. If we could manufacture viral products at will, we’d do it every time. Additionally, if we could do it, it wouldn’t come as such a surprise (I’m looking at you Double Rainbow) when something explodes virally. Part of the nature of something spreading in a viral manner is that it’s unexpected. This unexpected quality aligns closely with a key element of something going viral: it must be remarkable. Pulling that word apart you get its root: remark. We must always remember, that as is stated in The Cluetrain, “markets are conversations,” and conversations require topics of interest; topics that are remark-able. All of this leads to the concept that at its core, social media succeeds only if: 1. You shift the burden of promotion from the creator/business of the product to the fan. 2. Your product/business/band/service is remarkable; if it’s not, people will not share it. Once this is understood, you can begin articulating strategies that—while not guaranteeing what you do will “go viral”—will increase your odds of being spread by fans. In his still-relevant book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, borrowing from Robin Dunbar, articulates the idea that the maximum number of authentic social relationships any person can maintain is 150. If you look around at the various clubs in your area, you’ll likely find that many of them tend to have a capacity of somewhere around 150 people (could be 200, could be 100, but you get the idea). This is why it’s not surprising that a band who does not shift the burden of promotion from themselves to their fans will have a painful downward trajectory of playing in these 150-capacity clubs for some period of time, until their friends get fatigued and stop coming. To avoid this plight, bands need, what Gladwell terms, “weak ties” to bridge the gap between one social group and into another. “Weak ties” are people that introduce an idea/business/band to an entirely new circle. Consider, for example, that you’ve been on a job hunt for some period of time. You’ve talked to all your friends, and none of them have provided you with any leads. This is because all your friends are within the same circle, and basically share the same information/contact base. One day you board a plane, and strike up a conversation with the stranger sitting next to you. You tell this person that you’re looking for a job in a certain field, and, much to your surprise/delight, this person says something along the lines of, “You know, I have a friend who is working in that industry; I should connect you.” This is the power of the “weak tie.” It introduces you into an entire new community. Using this thinking, bands can strategize to increase their odds of breaking out of their circle of 150. Here’s an example. There is a very fine band by the name of Guster. As they were emerging in the late 90s/early 2000s, they were a student band at Tufts University in Medford, MA. Prior to holiday breaks, they would gather their fans and arm each fan with several copies of their recent releases. They’d give these fans the following mandate: When you return home for the holidays, and you meet up with your hometown friends, who are also returning from college, give them copies of our release to take back with them to their colleges after the holidays. In doing so, Guster was able to utilize “weak ties” to build a network of fans throughout numerous universities. This is, of course, the very definition of social networking—long before either the term or the internet architecture (i.e. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) were invented. This method worked for Guster not just because they shifted the burden of promotion from themselves to their fans, but also because their music was (and is) remarkable. They, like all bands, had to start by playing in front of their friends, but, because the music was (is) remarkable, the fans wanted to spread the word. Guster, understanding this, created an architecture of participation that enabled and empowered these people to do so. Note, Guster did not have to give incentive for these fans to spread the word; rather, the fans wanted to spread the word because they were passionate about the music. The sharing of something they loved, was reward enough. Guster just gave them tools and direction.

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Invisible Lines - “Clean Up The Mess”

(Source: youtube.com)

Recording Tips - Recording the Rhythm Section

Recording the rhythm track is where the ability to record 3 or 4 tracks at once is a HUGE benefit. The ability to record the drums in stereo by using two channels, recording the bass into a third channel, and the rhythm guitar playing a “dummy track” into a fourth makes the recording sound tight and clean.
Miking the drums and mixing them to two tracks (left and right) is what to spend your energy to get sounding just right, because drums are very hard to fix once recorded. After that, the bass guitar can be run directly into the multitracker so it will come over the headphones, but, not be picked up by the drum mics. Then, finally, the guitar can be run directly also. Even if the sound is not that good, just to complete the rhythm section, then the guitar can be re-recorded over the first take by miking the speaker cabinet to get the sound you want.
In the event you are using a 4-track, the 4 tracks you just recorded will have to be mixed and recorded to a regular stereo deck to get it down to two tracks. This will bring your recording to the regular deck speed, which is a drawback, but, it will free up 2 tracks for vocals, guitar solos, sound effects, or whatever your music needs.
When mixing down the rhythm track, keep in mind that when it is mixed to the 2 tracks, it is permanently mixed, so be sure to get it right, the only way to change it after this is in the premastering (which will be discussed later) and the changes that can be made at that point is minimal.

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ALIVE pop/rock/alternative - songwriters and musicians from Newcastle Upon Tyne

Like minded songwriters and musicians from the North East of England who enjoy writing and recording their own songs.

James Bell - lead vocals,guitar,bass,keyboard,tambourine

Anthony Ramanauskas - guitar,vocals,bass,keyboards

Grant Smith - lead guitar,vocals,bass

Andrew David - Drums

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