Last Sunday, Bandcampus held it’s second SXSW PREP where we collectively prepared and reviewed band’s digital and physical toolbox in an effort to prepare them for playing SXSW. Over 15 bands were in attendance with a range from seasoned SXSWers to new bands that had never played the conference.
Also at Bandcampus: SXSW PREP we announced the winners of the community voted contest to select bands to play at the second annual Houston@SXSW party. Over 1000 votes were cast over a 72 hour period. We are all very impressed with the work that bands put into contacting their community to get the vote out. If these Houston bands are working that hard in other spheres we’re going to be hearing many more about them in the near future.
The bands that were selected, the bands that will be representing Houston at the Second Annual Houston@SXSW party will be:
Here’s the remainder of the recap in mostly bullet point form for your skimming pleasure:
Tips for Bands playing SXSW (contributed by everyone in attendance)
The first agenda item of the day was to discuss what you could get out of SXSW by playing or even just attending. The overarching tip that should be considered when planning anything is to Cut Through the Noise. Too many people are at SXSW and you need to think about ways in which you can connect with these people in a substantial way. That does not include overplaying, that does not include talking to everyone you meet. It does include thinking about effective ways to communicate your message. It does include novel ways of getting the word out.
Biggest tip: Cut Through the Noise!
Don’t overplay
bring extra equipment
Make a game plan
Playing is half of the goal
Networking needs a goal
Digital and Physical Preparation for bands
No matter what level a band is at, they should have a digital and physical toolbox that they can use at a moment’s notice to get discovered, sell merchandise or showcase their craft. At the Bandcampus session we reviewed the basics of a digital and physical toolbox that bands can set up easily. The components
Digital Toolbox
Central band email address (gmail or unique band domain recommended)
Pictures posted online
Videos (Live, Produced) posted online
Unique Band Domain Name
Music posted online in several locations
Testimonials/Writeups from press posted visibly on online properties
Booking information
Short biography of the band
A Home Base that is not Myspace, Facebook or any other online property not owned by yourself
Digital Outposts at places like Myspace, Facebook, ReverbNation, Bandcamp.com, etc.
Physical Toolbox
Music for sale
Merchandise for sale
Business Cards (Recommended by Marie Angell of The Snake Charmers)
Elevator Pitch (Worked on at a previous Bandcampus, demonstrated by Insert Name Here)
Helpers
Several experts were on hand to give bands a review of their online presence and physical marketing materials. These people donated their time and deserve thanks and also should be considered for the future if you are looking for copy, marketing materials, or general direction for a band’s career.
UPDATE: Voting is now closed for band selection for Houston@SXSW. No further votes will be counted. Thanks to everyone for voting and we will be announcing the winners in two hours at Bandcampus: SXSW PREP.
The last 60 hours have been a fog of sleeping, coughing, delirium, speaking in tongues, and changing out of soaked clothes because I sweat the bed again. Gross. The flu quarantine should be lifted by Saturday and the locks taken off the apartment doors at that time.
My apologies to bands who were looking for voting information yesterday. We will now close nominations and open voting for bands to play at Houston@SXSW on March 15th, 2010. Voting is open as of now and will close on Sunday, February 28th at noon. Please pick three bands to play, one voting session per person, per IP, just in case you were already thinking of gaming the results.
As many in the tech, film and music communities know, SXSW is one of the biggest creative festivals held each year. It presents people working in these fields the opportunity to get discovered and add momentum to an already working machine. In recent years though, SXSW has been inundated with such large numbers of people that it is difficult to have any impact. In fact, many people in the music community of Houston choose not to attend the conference and not to bother sending in applications for music showcases for fear of rejection and a general perception that it is a waste of time and resources.
There are still many very good reasons to attend SXSW and there are even more unexplored ways to maximize your impact at the conference. The fact that the conference is so close to Houston makes it worth your while to attend even without a badge or wristband. Many industry professionals are in Austin during the week of music and the setting provides a good opportunity to contact and meet them to talk about your career. Label, booking and promotional companies also attend and fruitful research can be accomplished by sitting down with them for meetings. Additionally, with the rise of non-SXSW-sanctioned parties running virtually around the clock, the need to play a SXSW showcase is significantly less important than it was several years ago.
In personal communication with bands over the past couple years I’ve talked about how important it is to take control of your career and do game changing things to get noticed and build your audience. As a band working for itself, SXSW is the perfect staging grounds for this philosophy and the best way to accomplish this is to cut through the noise.
Don’ts:
Don’t play 9 shows in 4 days; those last shows are going to be low on energy and probably not represent your band in the way you wish to portray yourselves.
Don’t try and play the hottest party at SXSW; you probably don’t know what it is and if you did you’d already have representation working for you.
Don’t expect to be discovered at SXSW and have everything handed to you from now on
Do’s:
Look at what everyone else is doing and take a right turn from that
Do play (at least) one show that will have the desired impact to get you noticed by any potential fans, not just that talent scout: a guerrilla show in the middle of the street, on the back of a flatbed truck while driving around, play your music blasting from a boombox while walking down the street, hang shirts of your band just out of reach on telephone poles near the convention
Do your research beforehand to target the people you want to work with, write them beforehand, and get a committment to meet with them to talk
Do attend Bandcampus: SXSW PREP at Caroline Collective on February 28th from 2-4pm to make plans to attack SXSW and get your digital and physical toolbox in order
That last part is key. This Sunday at Caroline Collective we will be holding the latest installment of Bandcampus, entitled SXSW PREP. Similar to last year, this will be a workshop pairing volunteers with musical artists working to get prepared for SXSW with the following goals:
1. Prepare press materials and basic online presence items for bands interested in attending SXSW.
Any band playing in Austin during SXSW needs to be prepared to promote themselves given the chance. Playing a show is just the start of that promotion. Artists need a press kit, songs hosted online, video posted online, booking and contact information somewhere as well as physical cds to sell to interested parties or to give to record labels or booking agents. Many bands are unprepared for this situation and are lacking many of these items. By providing musicians with creative experts bands can receive focused attention to generate or upload these items to a location on the internet that raises the artists’ visibility.
This year’s party will again focus on the contributions of Houston’s creative professionals. Startups will present, films will be shown and musical artists will showcase. This year’s party will be held at Hudson’s (301 W. 5th), Monday, March 15th from 5pm-2am. Last year’s music was curated by myself selected from the bands who attended Bandcampus: SXSW PREP. This year’s showcasing bands will be selected by the community. That means you. And your community.
Pay attention because we are going to do this very quickly. Nominations are open as of now and will close on Thursday, February 25th at noon. If you are in a band, know a band or like a band, DO THIS NOW: nominate them in the comment section below.
Starting Thursday at noon, voting will open for all bands who were nominated. Voting details, site and rules will be given on Wednesday. Voting will close on Sunday, February 28th at noon. Bands who are selected to play the party will be announced at Sunday’s Bandcampus: SXSW PREP.
Sunday’s Bandcampus: SXSW PREP is for 1) Houston musicians attending SXSW as official selections, 2) Houston musicians interested in playing at the Houston focused day party, 3) Bands looking to get their physical/online toolbox and online presence set up or checked by industry professionals, and 4) industry professionals looking to donate a couple hours to help bands generate/solidify these materials.
We need skilled graphic designers, web developers, copywriters, PR reps or any other creative professional which would be able to donate time and services for a couple hours to help bands prepare their online presence and press materials for SXSW.
WHAT: Bandcamp: SXSW PREP WHEN: February 28th, 2-4pm WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline Houston, TX WHY: Prepare for SXSW, find out who’s playing Houston@SXSW; a free showcase of Houston creative professionals
On Wednesday night, several of Houston’s music press met to have drinks. It was a casual affair, nothing with the air of seriousness or too formal. But after a short while it was clear there was a connection somewhere and the parties included seemed to appreciate each other’s presence. It seems that a second date may be in order.
I’ve been a huge fan of most of Houston’s music press for sometime now. I consider myself extremely lucky that I work in circles that allow the opportunity to share ideas and drinks with some of these people on a regular basis. There are still others who I’ve only met in passing and still more with whom interaction has only been through trading emails or blog comments. Other local writers are in this same boat and haven’t yet had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with their peer group. The importance of meeting and conversing with colleagues in a Community of Practice cannot be understated so getting together to have a drink and talk shop was a home run idea for all of us.
Two recaps of this were posted about this meeting the next day, by Brittanie Shey of Houston Press and Jeremy Hart of Space City Rock. Brittanie’s piece provides a good flow of the conversation that was had about the local music community, especially the hot topic of staying up on local bands and why so few bands send in music or make any attempt to contact the press. Jeremy’s post gives a run down of those in attendance and his kind comments about how great the event was were shared by everyone in attendance. You should check those out as a companion to this post.
The most heated point of discussion related to Houston’s music press not being contacted by local musicians enough to keep them updated on their careers. I am squarely in this camp with the press and feel that there is too much apathy and reactivity (vs. proactivity) in Houston musicians and that musicians should be in better contact with their press. This was a topic that was directly mentioned by Craig Hlavaty at the last Bandcampus, re-addressed with a series of posts on this site and echoed with comments and other statements by Brittanie Shey and Sara Cress of 29-95.com.
On this topic Joe Mathlete had the most prescient comments. Joe said two things that deserve to be repeated, keep in mind I’m paraphrasing his quotes but attempting to conserve the ideas:
1. Music writers need to be doing a better job of getting out into the community and finding out what bands are doing.
2. Some band’s goals are simply to put out good music and have fun.
I’m happy to cede the first point and to share the burden of proactively contacting bands to keep tabs on them. As for the second point, it is both true and contributing to the problem of not enough contact between musicians and press. The issue is not that bands want to have fun and put out good music because that’s something that we can all get behind. The issue is not the additionally agreeable statement from Joe that some of these bands don’t care if they get written up because that’s not part of their success metrics. The problem is goals.
There are not enough bands who have goals to be financially/artistically successful telling the public this. There are not enough bands who have goals that include making good music and having fun telling the public this. These goals are neither mutually exclusive or in opposition of each other. But they are ideas of a path and a direction and hone in on what they bands want/need to achieve them. And that’s what’s really missing: there are not enough bands in Houston with goals. This is not the first time I’ve personally mentioned musician goals. The real problem with bands not having goals is that it creates confusion for the local music press who do have stated goals: to chronicle the Houston music community and write about it’s related media products.
There are a lot of places we can go from here. We could talk about the effect of an entire community of bands operating without stated goals. That this leaves the music press questioning 1) why they’re not hearing from musicians more and 2) whether they should write about the musicians or whether the musicians want them to write about them. Or we could talk about how band’s definitions of success may not include caring whether the music press writes about them at all or if it does they want to be sought out by the music press. That this creates a vibrant cottage music community driven by parties and self released albums and fan driven interactions.
…
I’ve tried to write up my thoughts on the previous paragraph’s topics and have stalled out with something long, getting longer, and requiring considerable editing. I’m just going to take a right turn and just say I’m super fucking proud of Houston’s music press and the hard work they put in every day. At this point it’s not clear where we’re going to go from here; it’s up to the community to continue to the discussion. In one short meeting we got a discussion started in person that then flowed back to the web through a couple posts and some good comments. That’s as good a start as any.
Last week, I published the Guide to Booking Your Band in Texas ebook to lower the barriers for local musicians to start playing venues outside of their home market. Bands have already begun to write to say that they were able to book shows immediately after using the ebook. They’ve already started to ask questions about what to do next: should they worry about the venue they play at, how do they maximize their trip to a city. These are exactly the type of questions bands should be asking in considering how to maximize a live show, even in their home market. While last week the discussion on this site was how to start playing live more often, bands need to understand, it’s not just about playing live.
Every show is an opportunity to build your career. That opportunity spans the entire day, not just the 45 minutes where you’re on stage.
Assuming that you’ve been able to book yourself a one-off show in a surrounding city you have a great reason to spend the entire day in that town maximizing the impact and making it into an event. There are a number of things you can do over the course of the day that will help your show and contribute to creating/solidifying an audience in that market down the road. Below are some preliminary notes of some career building activities for day of show. Some of these ideas require very little planning, some of the ideas build off of each other. Notice not one of them mentions playing the show itself. This list is for all the other time you have, outside of the setup through the break down. I’ve separated them into four categories and I recommend you try and do one from each category each time you visit a city to play a show. Over the next several days I’ll dive into the specifics of how and why these actions can be beneficial in both the short and long term for your band’s financial solvency, audience size, and presence in any city.
Day of Show Career Building Activities for Your Band:
Increase Attendance for that day’s show
Play an impromptu live set
Outside a Coffee Shop
On a Street Corner
On a College Campus/College Radio
Outside a Thrift Shop
Promote
Pass out flyers on a college campus/coffee shop/thrift store/record store
Drop in a college radio station
Drop by a college campus
Drop in local taste maker locations (in Houston I’m talking about Coffee Groundz and Caroline Collective)
2. Grow Your Audience
DJ an afterparty
Hold a happy hour for fans
Hang out with fans after the show
3. Solidify Your Presence
Take a music writer out for a drink before the show
Get a drink with other bands in the city
Visit another venue to get booked for the future
Pick up all the local publications
4. Make Money
Drop off your music/merch at a local Record Store
Sell music/merch @ a coffee shop
Sell merch/music while busking
What are some other things that bands can do day of show to help their careers?
This is Part two in a two part series listing Houston’s music press.
Yesterday’s post began with the provenance of this list: the need for local bands to be contacting their local press more often. Then the first half of Houston’s music press was listed, including links to their outfits and samples of their work. Today’s post finishes that list with the second half of Houston’s Local Music Press. Make sure that you check out both posts and remember the additional homework assignment of actually writing the press to tell them about what you’re doing.
Here’s the rest of your local music press (in random order thanks to random.org):
David Sadof, Houston Examiner
David Sadof has been a member of the Houston Music Community since the 80’s when he was Music Director at Rock 101 KLOL and The Buzz KTBZ. Kerry Melonson of Satin Hooks openly blames David and his radio show “Lunar Rotation’ as the reason he is a musician. David is now a regular writer for the Houston Examiner; read his post on Spoon’s Transference and notice that every post David writes includes a video clip.
Craig Hlavaty, Houston Press
Craig is Assistant Music Editor at the Houston Press and works closely with Chris Gray to cover everything about our music community. Craig writes an unbelievable number of pieces regularly, probably due in part to his firm adherence of the “everyday is a workday, every night is a weekend” mantra. You can catch him tweeting about every show he sees and everything that happens in his very busy nightlife. You also might want to read his actual writing; here’s coverage on February 5th’s Justin Townes Earle show.
David Cobb, Houston Calling
David is a one man show covering all forms of musical expression in Houston, from benefits to live shows to news about local bands, artists, and concert posters. Every year along with partner blog Done Waiting they compile one of the best curated SXSW music lists. Read his post and commentary on Derek Webb’s recent Haiti Benefit.
Rob Delossantos/Joel Hughes/others, Indie Houston
These guys are living the kind of life where you don’t get the deposit back. Staging most efforts from the IndieHouston House, this group hosts regular shows but also have a blog that covers the goings on of bands that makes their way through this city. One difference between this site and most is that guest contributions are welcome and invited. Here’s Joel’s post on an upcoming Roky Moon + BOLT show and here’s Rob’s call for submissions from the community.
Joey Guerra, Houston Chronicle
Joey is a music critic for the Houston Chronicle and “absolutely loves it.” He’s clearly living life to its fullest, regularly abusing twitter with laughter and commentary on all things pop culture. Personally, his tweets crack me up regularly. Joey’s love of pop culture makes its way into his writing so as a band looking to contact him, better be able to discuss your music in the context of anything from Madonna to Jonas Brothers to Solange. Read Joey’s honest assessment of the latest Jonas Bro solo album.
Adam Newton, DryveTyme Onlyne, Houston Press
This guy gets hustler of the year award. Previously with Houstonist, now seriously focused on his own blog DryveTyme Onlyne which has daily content in various forms and has also recently started doing some coverage for the Houston Press as part of Chris Gray’s master plan. Also plays in Prairie Cadets with Marc Brubaker. Witness Adam’s weekly feature, Media Monday, where he offers up free music and video from the web.
Jeremy Hart, Space City Rock
Editor of Space City Rock which constantly amazes me with its unbelievably prolific posting schedule. SCR is also the best place to find a comprehensive readout of the shows going on in Houston every. week. Revelry Report still uses the show calendar for our weekely music events calendar. Jeremy is also an ex-KTRU dj which means he’s got a well steeped diverse musical background. See what I mean with Jeremy’s discussion of the Daniel Higgs show on February 5th.
Marc Brubaker, Houstonist
Carrying the torch for the Houstonist’s coverage of the local music scene. Has started something that has been needed for a very long time: a weekly news recap of things that happened in the local music community (the only other place I’ve seen a daily/weekly recap of local news is with Houston Press’ new feature: Magnolia City Mixtape, brought to you by Brittanie Shey). Marc also curates Xnihilo Gallery, shoots live shows and events for a smattering of local papers and publications, and plays in Prairie Cadets with Adam Newton. Take a quick look-see at Marc’s H-Town Rock and his regular news recap Rock Talk.
Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle, 29-95
Houston Chronicle and 29-95.com music writer. Did his time at Rolling Stone so you know he’s legit. Still mostly covers nationally recognized acts but has been able to focus a little more on local artists thanks to a crack team of people who continually send him music, hard working Houston bands who have started to write local press about their work and the hyper local focus of 29-95.com. Here’s a story from 2009 about the Wild Mocassins as they prepared to leave for their first tour.
Note: Some of these people are repeats from the 2008 post, some of these are new entrants to the field. Last time I compiled this list, I caught some shit for not including some people DESPITE mentioning that if there was anyone missing, drop me a line and I will add them. I cannot be in all places at all times. If I don’t know about you and your writing, I want to. Drop me a line at mwettergreen@gmail.com so I can add you to this post and start reading your work.
This is Part one in a two part series listing Houston’s music press.
Back in 2008 when I first listed Houston’s music writers my point was that anyone who has more than a casual relationship with music should know who their local music writers are. These are the people on the ground grinding to make sure music in your community is covered, from the stadium shows down to the fledgling bands just picking up an instrument. The list was both a love letter to these writer’s work and a required reading list for those inside the community. People on the support, management and service side should be paying close attention to what gets covered because these writers provide a barometer for the vibrancy and success of the local scene. More importantly though is that bands need to realize that local success includes an intimate understanding of the landscape that they inhabit. And that means that these bands should be even more invested, knowing which writers to contact and when, based on their coverage, area of interest, and lead time.
That last part’s not happening.
Over the past couple years, I’ve heard two different viewpoints explaining the situation, one from music writers and one from bands. The music writer viewpoint is
“I’d love to be listening to more local acts and writing about more local acts. But, local bands aren’t sending me cds, giving me updates on their recording, forwarding press releases or really contacting me to tell me anything about what they’re doing.”
This viewpoint was punctuated strongly by Houston Press music writer Craig Hlavaty on Sunday when he stood up at Bandcampus: BOOKING PARTY and said something to the effect of:
“Bands: PLEASE send me your cds, music, information about shows and what you’re doing. I would LOVE to cover you but you don’t write us about what’s going on.”
The second viewpoint is the band’s viewpoint:
“I’d love to get written up in local press more // Why aren’t we getting written up in local press // I don’t know how to get written up in local press”
For bands, the question of who to contact and how to contact them has a simple answer. The how is: if you’re doing something that you think the music press should be talking about, write them. The who is: listed below.
This year carries an additional homework assignment: write these musicians and tell them what you’re doing with your music. If Houston music writers start complaining to that there are too many bands writing them because of this, then we’ll all high five each other and mark our calendars to remember the date.
Here’s the first half of your local music press (in random order thanks to random.org):
Jim“Eggs” Bricker: Breakfast on Tour
Jim and his crew are serious music fans. They started writing Breakfast On Tour as a creative outlet for the staggering number of shows they were attending and as a way to “encourage more people to experience the joys of live music events.” The blog covers mostly live shows and the culture surrounding live shows. Check out Eggs’ last entry from his tour diary with The Sour Notes.
Ramon Medina: 29-95, Free Press Houston
Writes for 29-95.com, Free Press Houston and founded NonAlignment Pact (a really insightful group blog about music you might want to check out). Ramon and his wife Rosa Guerrero are caring fixtures on the music scene and inspire many bands to keep on trucking. Check out a recent post from his two writing spots.
Dan Joyce/Keaton Branch: AudioADD
These young upstarts launched AudioADD about a year ago and have been doing a great job covering the cult of the music addict. Appropriate from two guys who feel the same way about Apple. You can also listen to Keaton with his band The Figure Eight. Check out this post from AudioADD’s 12 Days of Christmas series: In Rainbows.
AnnaGarza: Free Press Houston
Anna Garza is about to have the “best year ever.” She recently founded Girls Rock Camp, a non-profit that works to empower women through musical education and performance art. Earlier in the decade she booked shows for Hands Up Houston which gives her intimate knowledge of the Houston music community and makes it pretty easy for her to bang out post after post on Free Press Houston about art, the city, and local music acts. Take a look at her post about Sound + Movement.
SaraCress: 29-95
Sara’s been writing about the Houston Music Community and its culture for several years now. She’s made the jump from the Houston Chronicle to 29-95 where she gets to have a bit more fun with her posts especially with list titles like “My Redneck Past”. Check out the cheeky side here and the more straight ahead reporting as published in the Houston Chronicle.
Chris Gray: Houston Press
Music Editor for the Houston Press. Writes several weekly pieces for the print version and also writes the Rocks Off blog. Chris Gray has a master plan to cover the depth and the breadth of Houston music that he’s been enacting over the past year plus. You can see his success by taking a look at the diversity of posts on the Houston Press website and the volume of daily writing coming out of that staff. It really portrays the music community as it deserves to be covered. A demonstration of his musical knowledge can be seen in his recent post about Lightning Hopkins receiving a Historical Marker.
BrittanieShey: 29-95, Houston Press
Brittanie’s a freelance writer that has amassed an incredible number of accolades as a journalist in a very short time, covering everthing from food to travel to women’s issues. She is extremely literate but has a conversational style that makes reading a concert review seem like you’re hearing it from one of your friends. It also makes you wish you were there. Or that you performed better. ouch! Check out how she couldn’t stop running into Ralf Armin of Dead Roses the weekend of the last Free Press Houston Block Party.
LanceScott Walker: 002 Magazine
Lives in New York. This fact doesn’t matter if you know that Lance Scott Walker is born and bred Texan. His book with photographer Peter Beste about Houston’s hustlers and rappers is set to be out this year. Lance is reportedly “still paying off” Ojet Records, a little Houston label he had in the beginning of the century. Check out his monthly pieces on local musicians in the back pages of 002 Magazine.
Jeff Balke, Houston Chronicle
Writes Broken Record, a blog about the music industry from the perspective of a performing artist. He also plays in Orange Is In, which according to this tweet, is getting back together! If you are a band trying out a new business model in your career, you could write Jeff and tell him about it. Here’s his analysis of NIN continuing to reinvent their business model.
Stay tuned for the second half of Houston’s local music press tomorrow.
Note: Some of these people are repeats from the 2008 post, some of these are new entrants to the field. Last time I compiled this list, I caught some shit for not including some people DESPITE mentioning that if there was anyone missing, drop me a line and I will add them. I cannot be in all places at all times. If I don’t know about you and your writing, I want to. Drop me a line at mwettergreen@gmail.com so I can add you to this post and start reading your work.
I’ve compiled a free ebook on booking a show for your band in cities within a four hour drive of Houston. It lists venues and their contact information as well as some contact templates and basic advice for how to get your band booked.
Many of the ideas inside of here were developed through extensive discussions with bands and individual artists as well as the monthly Bandcampus sessions. The venue listings were obtained through publicly listed information and a great thanks goes out to Katie Brown for helping to compile it all. All of the information contained within this ebook is something that I feel every band could use so I’m posting it for free.
If you like this ebook and find it helpful, please consider blogging a link back to this post so that peole know where to get the book. If you’d like to share copies with someone else, please point them to this post instead of the file directly so that I can make edits without concern.
Also, if this book makes you happy please leave a comment below this post. I’d love to know what you think about the work.
P.S. If you’d like just the venue listing without the helpful guidance on how to book your band, leave a comment below so I know how many people would like the venue listing in a google document format.
Yesterday’s Bandcampus was a loud celebration of touring and music careers between over 15 bands and a mix of Houston music writers. As this was the first Bandcampus of the year people were understandably excited to share their progress with each other and it didn’t hurt that Marc Brubaker brought a keg of St. Arnold’s.
The session began late as printing of the ebooks took longer than expected (85 pages each!!!). Thanks to Jeremy Osborn of Wayside Drive for helping with the cover and the printing transport. Ebook copies went fast, the ones who came late had to share it and wait for it to be made available online (later today). We reviewed the process of booking a live show, beginning with two assumptions, 1) each band had prepared a digital toolbox of press, bio, pictures, media, stage setup to send to bookers or promoters as needed. 2) if the band had contacts or relationships with other bands or booker/promoters in desired cities, that would be the first place to start when booking a live show, aside from the following process. Then, we reviewed the planning steps for booking shows; selecting desired dates and targeting venues based on genre similarities and the size of venue. Next we talked about the phone follow-up, the importance of writing out a script and remaining to-the-point and professional. For each of these steps we highlighted the specific sections of the ebook for the bands to refer to later.
During the discussion session, before getting down and contacting venues, several points were raised by Golden Cities, I-45 and Glasnost, three bands who have set up everything from their own shows to regional and national tours.
Lance and Marcus of Golden Cities say: the most difficult thing is getting venues to reply. You have to understand and get over the fact that not everyone is going to reply to your email ever.
Chuck of Glasnost recommends also having a standard contract for your band as part of your digital toolbox. Glasnost compiled theirs from several different examples available online. Here is an article from Music Biz Academy with several example contracts
All bands agreed that asking for money can be the most difficult part and that the actual rate is completely negotiable and situational. It is not recommended to play for free though.
Additionally we had several members of the media in attendance:
The most rousing portion of the entire session was the discussion that ensued when Houston Press Music Writer Craig Hlavaty stood up and let bands know that they needed to take better advantage of the musical infrastructure that exists to help them:
Music writers love to write about local bands, local bands seem to not understand this or take advantage of this opportunity
Craig spends a ridiculous amount of time looking at venue and band sites to find out who is playing and when, because venues don’t list it themselves
Local Bands need to be sending information about their upcoming shows to the music writers 1.5 weeks in advance of the show (minimum)
Bands need to send: The cost of the show, the bands on the bill, the time and venue of the show
Bands expressed a lack of knowledge on who their local music writers actually are (I have a two-part post for tomorrow and Wednesday opening this up for musicians)
With the ebook in hand bands were ready to start booking themselves live shows in and around Houston. We will be following up with each and every band to make sure that they actually work towards this and not sink into a hole of apathy. By discussing how these bands are using the ebook and leveraging community-based support every band in the Houston Music Community can begin to practice these career building steps.
More information about the next Bandcampus: SXSW PREP coming this week.
Check out some other press on this round of Bandcampus: BOOKING PARTY
This semester in COMP 300: Society in the Information Age we’ve been discussing our changing world and the shifting perceptions brought to us with the addition of technology. In a previous session we examined the Information Age through the lens of Marshall McLuhan’s teachings. McLuhan was a leader in the field of media theory and communications. Though long dead at this point, his methodology for examining any radio ad, television series or new technology has allowed academics and media theorists to discuss the effects upon society as a whole.
The reason that McLuhan’s work has lasted was his blanket approach to addressing technology’s impact on society. Instead of discussing the sales of a particular product as a result of a popular advertisement, instead he examined how that ad touched upon our desires, wants and cultural norms. He separated each example from time and space, looking it as an archaeologist would, giving each medium the designation of cultural artifact. That approach remains viable to this day and would allow you to measure current technological advances such as the success of a viral video as a function of what emotions or societal effects it addressed.
McLuhan’s most useful device is the tetrad, a pedagogical tool designed to understand the transformative effects of a particular cultural artifact by looking at how it increased or decreased specific cultural patterns or brought back things that were lost in our society as a result of new technology.
Specifically, McLuhan’s tetrad asks:
What does the medium enhance or amplify in our culture?
What does the medium obsolesce?
What does the medium retrieve from earlier civilization or society that was previously lost?
What does the medium reverse or flip into when pushed to extremes? (this answer almost always carries a negative connotation)
In class we wrote out the tetrad for the cases of radio, television, the internet. For example, radio retrieved the use of our sense of hearing for information delivery, something that characterized pre-literate times. Another example: the internet enhances our abilities to redefine our geographical boundaries based on interests and identies in the same way that nationality arose with the coming of print culture.
This brings us to the application of the tetrad to another disruptive technology: Twitter. No one can argue that Twitter has completely shifted the way that we use the internet but also what makes up the internet. It seems that very few people have applied McLuhan’s theories though in an effort to explain the ways in which we as a society are now different as a result of Twitter. There are a couple examples of people who have applied the tetrad to Twitter (here, and here) and while I agree with some of their observations I mostly disagree with the specific application of the tetrad without considering the broad applications of the technology for society as a whole.
To truly examine Twitter’s effect on our lives we have to take a step back and view it as its own cultural artifact. It’s not enough to say that Twitter enhances our ability to connect with people all the time. Saying that Twitter makes CNN’s Breaking News Alerts obselete also understates the importance of Twitter. Instead we have to pull from what makes society the way it is, take our origins and our predictions for where we’re going. Questions like “what does this say about our society as a whole” or “what comment does Twitter make on societyas a people?” are more salient questions than the specifics of how Twitter is being used. As one of Neil Postman’s laws of technological change (#4 to be exact), technology does not make a additive difference, it makes an ecological one. So applying the tetrad to television does not yield answers based on how people use television but how society is different because of television. This is what McLuhan meant when he said his most famous quote “the mediums is the message,” that it is not important what people are watching or how they are watching but the mere fact that they are watching television that changes the society.
To stave off further verbose explanation, here’s the Twitter Tetrad. Again, it is important to note that while there are many answers to these questions, the answers are not “Twitter helps everyone connect with everyone immediately” or “Twitter helps you learn what your friends are doing” . This tetrad is designed to help us understand how Twitter actually has changed society.
1. What does Twitter enhance or amplify in our culture?
Twitter enhances our ability to cement the boundaries that we’ve begun to redraw on the internet. It does this by allowing us to live in communities of our own borders, different than nationality (which arose because of print technology), surrounded by like minds and interests. We come closer to “living” in this new community by understanding how those with shared interests and beliefs really live rather than just joining each other on websites and forums to discuss our similarities.
2. What does Twitter obsolesce?
Twitter obsolesces editorial content completely by painting a picture of what is actually happening right now. Twitter also removes traditional media as the authority and source of facts and up to date information.
3. What does Twitter retrieve from earlier civilization or society that was previously lost?
Twitter retrieves the ability to be an authority based on “power of voice” rather than traditional pedigree, something that was present in oral tradition. Twitter also retrieves our ability to memorize short passages to repeat orally as a transmission method for information and then knowledge.
4. What does Twitter reverse or flip into when pushed to extremes?
Twitter’s all-information, all-the-time, from everywhere on the globe, helps us stay connected everywhere but reverses into a collective hive mind of our buzzing thoughts. Disconnectedness and isolation is the product of the oversaturation of the channel: high fidelity but information dilution brought to you by sheer numbers of faceless thoughts passing through the medium.
Please let me know what you think about Twitter’s effect on society as a whole.
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