Jmac Attack wrote:Foo wrote:Jmac Attack wrote:Foo wrote:Jmac Attack wrote:Foo wrote:DancesWithWerewolves wrote:Jmac Attack wrote:We are not trying to profit off the song to make it clear. In fact, I hated that song but an ex band member mentioned covering it. So, as a joke, I played how I thought the song went. The rest of the band jumped in, and it just sounded so good that it stuck with us.
Look into it. It may simply be a blessing thing now. I know Weird Al likes to get permission to do a parody, but he'll still do one without and he's been legally fine (though, parody is exempt from copyright, I just used that as an example).
The real problem is that you can be 100% correct legally and still lose because you are forced to fight it.
People expect art for free these days. It's a bitch. I don't excpet a guy to work on my brakes, just to pay me for exposure. I agree with ya. It's just frustrating when others think you should be in the big time, but society says you can't (metaphorically). I mean, I always wonder why D isn't being hit up by big time movie companies because he is really good and legit. His art is out there. And people see it. I was going to buy a piece of his art, but had car trouble and was paying out of pocket for my kid's therapist. And that happened all of a sudden.
As a businessman, what advice would you give to me? I run my band as a business, but underneath the surface. On the surface, we look like we are just having fun. But I am known as a business-like mind in my local music community. Any advice is appreciated even if I disagree.
Honestly, our friends are usually terrible people to ask because they are going to favor us. Society is all that really matters.
In any trade, people need to develop their secondary business skills, namely sales, marketing, and negotiating. If the band is a business, no business goes anywhere without tons of time put into the business beyond creating the art. If the band has four members, they should ALL be giving 10-20 hours per week to those efforts.
Think of a bakery making great cupcakes. Lots of people can make great cupcakes. If few people know about them or how good they are the bakery fails. Now imagine 80 hours of marketing every week pushing the cupcakes out there. It is a totally different story. You probably see how much I promote Crave Eatery, is it an accident that the next 5 most popular food trucks combined don't have as many facebook likes in our market? Or that people call us before the others? Anyone can make a turkey sandwich, but the difference is making lots of people want it.
The builder in your area who makes the most money selling homes or doing home improvements is not the guy who swings the hammer the best, I guarantee it.
Makes total sense, actually.
To give an example, if I am a bar owner, I don't give a shit about how good you think you are. I care about how many people you are going to bring into my bar. I don't want to hear your demo tape, but I am all ears about the active community who follows your band loyally.
Also, with my food truck, I will never be the truck of the week/day/month. If I look back at past events where you had a food truck out and you did not promote the fuck out of them, we are gonna have a talk and we will probably pass. Crave Eatery does Crave Eatery events, not your little jackwagon cornhole friday nights.
I'm trying to motivate my band right now. Can I use your words? These guys have a lot of drive. For example ...my drummer is my absolute best friend. He was a radio DJ for three of the best radio stations in Ohio. Dude would drive 100s of miles, just to make $9 an hour, but be able to support his family while doing something he loves. I just think these guys need to think bigger. And not be so humble and nice.
Of course. Would do anything to help. I will call them personally and tell them they need to learn how to step on throats to get ahead in such a competitive business.
Seriously though, I see your facebook posts, and when I see some of the event posters, it kinda pisses me off as your friend. You gotta establish that your band gets top billing, not clustered at the bottom and lumped in with other bands. Don't be part of the party, be the party.
When Crave does a food truck event, and it is drawing thousands, it is fine to lump us in, but when we do smaller stuff, it has to be "Lemon Drop Beer Release Night with Crave Eatery!", or something like that.
