I was just googling information on local bands and I came across this interesting list and I agree with most of it. Check it out and see for yourself…

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/02/27/17-things-local-bands-just-dont-get

My response to the ones that I agree with the most:

1. Trashing other bands in your scene isn’t hurting their rep. It’s hurting yours.

Yes. This has been a huge problem for years in local music. Bands talking trash about other bands and musicians in your music scenes. Bands do this stuff all the time in all music scenes but band and musician bashing is a lot worse in Albany though. I used to trash talk other bands & musicians publicly a long time ago but I don’t do that anymore. I regretted it and stopped doing it. Yes, there are other bands & musicians that I don’t like but I try my best to keep my opinions and thoughts about them to myself. Other bands should follow the same advice. It’s just an unprofessional thing to do to talk bad things about other musicians and that includes when other musicians shit talk me. When other musicians decide to shit talk me publicly and try to make me look bad publicly… they all don’t realize they are hurting themselves. Sad but true.

2. Acting disinterested with folded arms at the back of the room at other bands’ shows does not make you cool. Singing along at the front of the stage does.

I agree with this one too! I have seen plenty of musicians who just hang in the back and sit down with arms folded or have a beer in their hands rather than being in the front of the stage with the crowd. I have seen certain musicians who would watch the band by the side of the stage for a few minutes and then they just leave. I have also seen musicians do much worse things like sit at the bar or hang out outside with their friends smoking cigarettes. They do this stuff as a way to pretend to be a rock star. They’re like, “I’m too important to be up there in front of the stage with the  crowd”.

Look… when a band asks you to open for them or they open a show for you… you definitely got to show your support by not hanging in the back but in the front of the stage with the crowd. Why is this important?

It’s because when another band shows you support, you need to show them support in return. When you play shows with other bands and when you watch the show in the back with your arms folded or drinking beer, the band who booked you will feel like, “This guy doesn’t care. I feel like I booked him for no reason”. You see what I mean? When a band shows you support, you need to return the favor so the band won’t feel disappointed.

3. Looking like a rock star isn’t as important as sounding like one.

Rock on! Image is not important. You don’t need fancy clothes, costumes or gimmicks or fancy hairdo or weird glasses. All you need to wear are blue jeans and a t-shirt. Just be yourself and rock out!!! \m/

5. Being respectful and friendly will take you much further than being superior and entitled.

Yep. Another good one. You can’t beg for respect. It’s gotta be earned. Just be respectful, positive and friendly at all times… you’d be surprised where that takes you. Good things will come out of being positive and leaving your ego at the door.

9. Physical promotional materials are still incredibly important. Get out into the world and put up some posters and hand out some flyers. Don’t spend all of your time on Facebook.

Agreed! Not everyone uses computers or even social networking. When I used to gig all the time in the past, I would do my best to promote all of my gigs. Print out flyers and hang ’em all over town as much as I can. I used to tell people about my gigs all the time. If you ever wonder why nobody goes to your shows, do you think maybe that you don’t promote yourself hard enough? Bands are always crying about how people don’t go to shows but they shouldn’t take it out on other people… they should blame themselves.

10. Facebook is dying. If your entire promotional plan relies on it, you’re doomed.

Indeed. I hate when bands rely on facebook as their official band site. You need to do more. Start a blog, twitter, etc. Whatever. There are tons of ideas to market yourself on the internet. Not everyone uses facebook. Some avoid facebook like the plaque.

14. HOWEVER, when you’re starting off, you need to play out everywhere and anywhere all the time to get practice. Record every show. Once YOU love listening to your live set (and non-friends and non-family tell you they love your band) then you can book real shows and charge a cover.

I like this one. When I used to play out, I used to try to record my live shows as much as possible. Just to listen back to see whether or not I was good or did I suck that night. Listening to your live recordings helps. There are a lot of bands that don’t record all of their gigs. Some do, some don’t. Recording your live gigs help. Whether you record by audio or video either way is cool. Don’t worry about sound quality. That’s not important. I’ve always loved to record my live shows. It’s a good thing to do. I used to have plenty of cassette tapes of my past shows but don’t know what happened to them all.

16. No one in the industry cares about how good your music is. They care about how successful you have become on your own.

Sad but true. Bands are always going off about how they get a lot of gigs and becoming successful because they believe their music is so good. That’s not always true. Venues and clubs don’t care whether or not you are good. Reality check: They only care about how many people you can pull in. They would still book the shittiest bands ’cause they pull in a lot of people. Go figure. If you want the gigs, the good ones, you gotta be able to pull in some people. If they see that you don’t have the draw… if you can only pull in two or three people, you’re done. They won’t book you again. You’re on your own on your promotion. Clubs don’t do it for you. You gotta show them you can be successful.

That little blog above was an interesting read.

Kev