Re-The Death Of Bands

Funny, I just got my solo band back together.

I didn't know if they were going to still be on my team after two years with the pandemic, but they're jubilant.

But hell no on going on the road, unless I get a fly-in offer from a festival, which I'm not completely counting out the possibility of as my live stream following is building in the jam band circuit.

Recently I got to do a solo set inside the venue with Twiddle, which grew my live stream audiences by about 10% maybe. Modest, I'll take it.

So yes I'm excited to have the band back, but not stopping the solo live streams, people watch every Monday still, 97 weeks in.

It's great to have a band just for the power you feel from it and how it helps you grow as a performer. 

The way Springsteen describes it in the Broadway show, it's true.  It's like a force elevating you, if the musicians are great and you have chemistry.

But you've gotta pay everyone if you're a solo artist. Whether they ask for it or not. Even if it's just what you can afford to throw them for a rehearsal, that's how you get reliability and loyalty. I don't deal with any flakes anymore. Flaky musicians are usually the ones who are willing to play for free.

Yeah man I've been down that road, nine years in a band called BuzzUniverse teetering on the edge of being the next big jam band in the Northeast, but like you said… Your fire one person suddenly you realize 10 fans are gone… All that stuff, dead on. Lived it, done it… Done with it!

Gregory Mcloughlin

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Subject: Re: The Death Of Bands

Spot-on as ever, Bob. 

Myself and a partner bootstrapped a music PR firm (Sweetheart Pub) working in the Americana niche in late 2019 and we've found success and enough business that we've never had to cold-call prospective clients to make ends meet ... and I'm also a member of a "successful" band (Great Peacock). I put that in air quotes because, yeah, it's almost impossible to make a living as a band today. It can be done, as you've outlined here, but it relies SO heavily on the live/tour component (playing to the cabal, if you can even get their attention).

We've had all the things a lot of baby bands would kill for -- top-tier support slots on tours, festival slots, radio success, a great manager / booking agent / publicist / two radio promoters all backing us. We did it without a proper label (we were lucky enough to find an "angel investor" type deal), but holy shit does the financial well dry up fast paying all those folks on top of gas/food/hotels on the road. We still get tagged as a 'baby band' by those above us on the food chain, which is undeniably true as much as we don't want to believe it. It hurts as we're all in our mid-30s now with our only viable income source being touring -- living and dying on the road is a younger person's game, and it's only gonna get harder as the years go by. 

We've had decent streaming success, certainly not enough to count on the income, but we've hit all the desirable "discovery"/curated playlists that acts in our genre would want (Indigo, Pulse of Americana, etc). Six-figure monthly listeners when we were on-cycle, which is about as good as it's gonna get in our genre. What has that really done for us...? I couldn't tell you. We look good on a one-sheet, that's about it. 

Social media has always been the band's weakest link, and it is absolutely part of the job if you want a stable career in music nowadays. And even if we did everything right -- you're correct, it's about the individual, the FACE nowadays in that realm. Just like it used to be with the A&R department, only now it's democratized on socials. You're an influencer first, musician second.

I say all this because in my time as a publicist, I have to reality-check almost every client that comes our way with basically what you've outlined here -- there is SO MUCH MORE that musicians need to be actively doing (24/7) beyond hiring out the work and waiting for the success to come to them. And even if, at the end of the day, you hit all those goals and benchmarks, you still might not be living off of it. You probably won't, in all likelihood. 

It's grim, but it's the reality. PR work pays my bills, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. 

Cheers,
Frank

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Dear Bob,

"A slow train still moves down the line".  

That's the opening line to a Pressing Strings song I wrote called "Slow Train".   I was pleasantly surprised to see you use that that term in this piece.

Pressing Strings is the band I've been fronting for over a decade now and you hit the nail right in the head about what we are dealing with as a band in these times where success is short lived, gimmicks are king, and the treadmill never stops.  

My band is about as grassroots as you get.  We bubble at about 50-60k monthly followers on Spotify—which is considered nothing to many big labels.  But it isn't nothing.  With that money we have been able to steadily fund the recording and marketing of new material, hire a radio person to shop our songs to AAA stations throughout the U.S.  

From that radio play we attracted management and we're signed by Hard Head Mgmt (who originally found and backed Marcus King, The Revivalists) and is run by Stef Scamardo, who's name you may recognize from her show JAM ON on Sirius XM.  She's also married to Warren Haynes.  

Hard Head found us a proper booking agency (Madison House) who has been able to line up opening slots for people like your boy Neal Francis, JJ Grey & Mofro, along with Festivals like Firefly, Peachfest, Floydfest…

For years I've gone back and forth toying with the idea of going solo under my own name to simplify the process.  It's seemingly easier to market one person than an entire band. But the reality is that would neuter the whole musical experience for me.  There's nothing in the world like traveling with your best friends and making magic for people night after night.  The collective highs and lows, the backstage hangs, the hotel shenanigans, the 14 hour recording sessions. There's no substitute.  

While we may never get the band jet or the tour bus convoy.  We are able to support ourselves and our families, paying our mortgages though playing music live for folks and that's way better than most jobs on earth.  

Thanks for the sharing your insight.  Big fan!

Jordan Sokel
www.pressingstrings.com

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The mythology of the rock band has mostly disappeared from our cultural milieu..
] 
"Freaky Friday" came out two decades ago..Lindsey Lohan's character played in a band..JLC had to cover for her at the big showcase.."The Rocker" movie came along about the same time..All about making it as a band..

You couldn't sell a movie like that today..

I'm a sitcom/comedy movie guy..The stock character of the loser/wanna-be rocker is now the aspiring DJ or rapper..The only bands on screen are the embarrassingly unhip dads in the garage..

That Viagra ad with the old guys rockin' out didn't help..


Whenever the boss leaves the office (in a comedy flick), the employees party down to rap songs..A celebration replete with the usual tropes- making it rain, twerking, the hand/arm gestures, etc ..

Most every soundtrack uses rap songs..Dramas, rom-coms, sportcasts, westerns (!?), and documentaries..We have the "notorious RBG" now..(Bader Ginsberg)..Of course...
     
The rock bands that HAVE made it in the recent past seem to be one main guy and replaceable side men...Coldplay, Muse, One Direction, Panic! @, Imagine Dragons, 21 Pilots, Maroon 5, etc..
     

So, the band paradigm is not only economically and logistically unfeasible, it's, like, SO last century..

Like the big band era was to us..We scoffed at the absurdity of the clarinet..Kinda' still do..

James Spencer

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Bob
 
Congrats this is THE definitive explanation of the current landscape. Could be the entire first year curriculum at any school attempting to teach the music biz.
 
Bands have been replaced by ephemeral clusters of people who come together sometimes in the same room, mostly disconnected in time and place, some accomplished on an "instrument", others good at pushing cultural buttons, to make music one record at a time. Some call it "writing by committee". I call it collaboration.
 
Something that you imply but don't dig into, that leaves brain matter on the wall when you point it out to industry vets: Virtually no one making it as an artist today EVER played live before they were famous!
 
As you point out it's all driven by a great leap forward in the democratization of the creation and distribution of music. Next big leap which will probably trump them all - AI created music. The art will be in how the kids mess with the AI to make music that no human is capable of and no one has ever heard before.
 
Exciting stuff!
 
Best,
 
Michael McCarty


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