THIS POST IS NOT BUSINESS OR LEGAL ADVICE.
You're absolutely right G.O.D. and this is a good thread/discussion overall. In my discussions with a lot of managers lately, "presenting the hook" in press packaging is becoming more and more effective, to the point where I've seen talent shows where established hip-hop/R&B managers were judging and would watch the artist perform and talk with the artist afterwards to "buy the hook" or at least come up with a creative way to steal it lol.
YES YES YES! There ARE people who understand, so I don't feel like I'm talking to a brick wall. The hook is what usually MATTERS the MOST. It is the most marketable portion of a song. It can show up on TV ads, it is what most people remember from a song.
This is why cats do the promo Cd in their press kit with the "hook-first" format.
Thank you!
ya Band broke up, and I hated being on the road. Waking up in a different city every day, I was just not built for that. I have started playing live again and found that I did still love that so maybe going back on the road now may be an opition. We did not have any huge hits, I do still get royality checks. But they are only enough for maybe my cable bill and a night on the town with my wife every month lol. When I went to being a full time engineer I loved it! Did that for many years but the 40 hour weekends caught up to me. Working at SW has been great to fill the gap for now.
I know cats in your situation. You know what being on "the inside" (in a relative way) feels like. For example, if you had a shitty tour manager that would ride your asses everyday - you did everything possible to get the label to dump his stupid ass.
You know how agents can come up with the craziest pitches to create an extra revenue stream for you, from being in magazine photo shoots to playing at some crazy event that pays a ton of money.
Anyway, thanks for understanding MY point of view.
Yea its been over 2 months
Well we got some good reviews on various sites, (people were supriised that a quality product came from a bunch of nobodies)
we got one whack ass review on okayplayer, we got cats emailing showing interest but nothing solid, whats funny is that the biggest buzz we got was when our album leaked... Now you can find our shit all over the freaking internet(china, Japan , Us blog sites) That has lead to a couple interviews for some forgien internet hip hop sites. But all in all, the response so far as performing or lables showing interest or even interviews has been luke warm at best.. I think alot of it has to do that we have no real support, no PR(we do it ourselves) and nobody has heard of us.....That will change with time
You have nothing solid because while you were riding your crest of buzz, you should have been soliciting managers and agents to secure you real shows or have THEIR PR people create buzz for you.
A lot of stories about how artists are discovered are actually created/imagined up AFTER the artist with a marketable song goes to a manager, etc. People believe that shit and it becomes part of lore (you would not believe how many times this happens.)
for the physical press kits Yes we sent our CD with a breif bio we thought that people seeing a complete finished product was our biggest asset(professinal looking CD packaging) In retrospect, your idea probolly would have worked better and for the next go around we probolly will make some promo CD's for the press kit. Now with digital Version of our press kit we had more flexabilitity, we emailed them the complete album, with some photos and video from our performance, we also gave them a link to our digital press kit which can be found here..
http://www.smashenterprise.com/ which has our bio, interviews/performances and photos. HOlmz also linked to his blog which can be found here
http://www.smashenterprise.blogspot.com/ . I feel like you have alot more flexabilitty with a digital press kit
CHANGE your digital press kit. I looked at it, it looks like a MySpace page but... it's not a MySpace page. You should have a toolbar with easy links to video, music, etc.
Look man, as far as your physical kit goes, hand the full cd but burn and "CD stomp" the promo CD with it (the hooks lined up first). Tell them the full songs are on the full CD (this might confuse them - you want to avoid confusion, so do an "either/or" on this.)
You guys made your stuff sound "pro" enough - you need representation of some sort to take you to the next level.
As far as physical press kits. Did you add a cover letter to personalize it? Lyric sheet? Was it in a branded folder? 8 1/2 x 11 group photo (b+w)? Any other cool stuff to put in there?
I've seen a PK from a group that had a fucking... TRANSFORMER toy in it. It was awesome because it fit their image (and probably cost a lot of money). Another had a mini super-soaker in it (fit with the name of their project.)
Guess what, the reps listened to those cats. I know it sounds dumb, but if you have a cool "addition" to the PK that is representative of something in your music, it works.
Unfortunately, if you're sending 100 PKs with a transformer, that gets mighty expensive. But those guys had managers who probably paid for it.
I'm just telling you how it is. Pink Floyd had a rubber pig in their PK for their "Animals" album.
There are a few VERY BITTER MOFOS on ILL when it comes to the industry. I mean, U can hope, wish, pray and perform and Exorcism on the industry and hip hop in general, but guess what, is not going back to what some would call it's hay day. Time may repeat itself on some levkel but it never reverses itself. SHIT KEEPS MOVIN', U EITHER MOVE WITH IT OR GET LEFT BEHIND. No matter if it's for the better or worse, it just keeps chuggin' along. I always say "You can't stand on the side line hating on the starting players in hopes that your disdain for the starters will get you in the game", U can never change the game from the outside looking in!
If those same "haters" would support what they think is "the shit", financially and otherwise, maybe what they think is the shit aka "good music" would be making a profit! But nooooooo, lol, you bootleg there shit at the speed you bootleg the so called "bullshit", lmao! Don't keep blaming the industry, round up 500 thousand people to buy that persons music, then sit back and watch how the labels court and shower that bitch with gifts to win her affection! If you're not doing that with all due respect "SHUT DA FUCK UP" already. People give the infamous "industry" more power than I think it actually wills. Consumers and there buying power is what I feel actually makes this boat float.
Just for example: T-Pain and Soulja boy's (picked them because most think their DO DO) labels didn't pour massive amounts of money into to there product because they "thought" they would blow the fuck up. They "blew the fuck" up in the streets which caused the labels to support them in a major way. They made those labels "stooopid" money. Very few artist make labels "stooopid money". It's the consumer that paid that "stooopid" money. SO AIM YOUR HATE ARROWS AT THE CONSUMERS THAT SUPPORT THESE DUDES AND NOT YOUR DUDE instead of hating the GAME!
This game is not going to stop, pause or rewind for any of us so if it's that bad to you? You could always work at a museum (lol, j/k), flip burgers or just plainly DO SOMETHING ELSE! Everybody's entitled to there opinions but some just go WAY over board with it and in the form of complete and total negativity!
Straight "belly aching" about the way things are while at the same time trying to promote your shit is a real bitch move to me. I'm just saying, I've never made an "informed decision" on whether to buy or do anything based on someone bitching about how fucked up something else is or was. In my opinion if you based your decisions on negative shit you'd never buy or do ANYTHING.
In this day and age it seems to be MUCH easier to Hate than it is to find the Love in most things. That shit can be applied to everything in life. One thing you can't do is LOVE from the side line! U can lust or hate from there with ease!
LET THE RETALIATORY REMARKS AND HATE BEGIN.....LMAO
Seems like LDB and I are on the same side here. I love this site and I know that if you aren't successful now,
YOU CAN EMBETTER YOURSELF AND CHANGE. It's possible, I'm trying to
MOTIVATE people to see things the way they are... not the way they think it "should" be.
Seriously, think that in 2009 you can CHANGE. Seriously man, anything is possible - don't get hard on yourself, be malleable - understand that times may have changed from when you first started producing, and use your talents to start making money for you, instead of just being a hobby.
THIS POST IS NOT BUSINESS OR LEGAL ADVICE.
