There are too many unsigned bands & artists that are desperate for money. When they make an album… they usually sell their albums at their gigs at ridiculously high prices. Somewhere around $10 – $15 when an album should really be $5 or no cost at all. Fans already pay $10 or a little more to get into your show and then they have to pay another $10 or more if they want to buy your album. I have always found that a bit ridiculous. If you want to listen to a band’s music on the internet, they usually do let you stream some stuff for free but a lot of them refuse to let you download it for free. They force you to pay to download the album whether at bandcamp or Itunes or whatever. They would only let you download a few certain songs off the album for free.

Whenever I talk about this stuff online… bands & musicians would usually get defensive. They would usually say stuff that it’s good to get the money back after all the studio time and money you put toward the album — things like that — or they just want to play rock star and try to make some good cash making music. They live in this delusion of being paid as a “professional musician“. They like to see music as a job and not as a hobby or a passion in life.

In the past, it used to be that musicians would just release their music online so they can get feedback and critique from the people. Bands don’t see music in that way anymore. They’re all obsessed with getting paid these days.

I refuse to make money for playing music for a lot of reasons.

First of all, I never saw music as a job. I don’t care to make money for what I do. I’m not worried about money ’cause it’s my way of showing my passion for music. It’s not about the money for me at all. Sure, I’ll accept payment if I play a paying gig but I won’t care how much I get paid. I don’t believe in selling my music to people either. If I make a demo with new original songs… I’ll just burn ’em on a blank CD-R and pass ’em around to everybody. I would also throw my songs on the internet w/ sites like ReverbNation, soundcloud, soundclick, etc.

Secondly, we’re just local musicians. No need to take yourself seriously. No need to spend a lot of money on studio time and CD manufacturing when you can make a halfway decent home recording and just throw your recordings online.

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to make a professional studio album with real CD cover and all but if I did that someday… I’m not gonna sell it to people. I’ll just hand ’em out to people for no cost just like I do with the demos. There’s a musician named Joe Nacco who is doing exactly that with his latest studio album called, “Chaos”. Go to http://www.joenacco.com/ if you don’t believe me. We need more bands doing stuff like this. Giving away their albums for nothing.

I think it’s disrespectful for bands forcing people to pay to listen to their music. What if they buy your album and it turns out they don’t like it? If you want feedback on all of your songs… then not making your listeners pay for it is the way to go.

I think Joe Nacco is doing a good thing and he’s going to help change the way local bands release albums. Maybe other bands will follow what he’s doing? If you want his new album, “Chaos”, get a hold him and he’ll send it right out to you.

Remember, this is unsigned music. You can have the freedom to release music however you damn well please. You’re not signed in a label or anything so get over yourselves, please!

Kev

How are certain musicians and bands becoming established acts and well-respected in the Albany area? I have a few pretty good ideas on how this is. There are quite a bit of bands & solo artists these days becoming more well-known around this area. Yet, the musicians and bands who continue to struggle get totally ignored by the scene. Now if you think that “good music” is how they become big in the area… that’s not always the case. I think there are popular and well-known bands & artists that totally suck around here (not naming names) — sometimes, I don’t even understand how they get all this popularity.

I give the most respect to bands & artists who struggle and don’t get a lot of recognition. Mostly the local acts that I point out on this blog are artists that you’ve probably never even heard of. I don’t support popular bands that much — only a very few of them. I like to support the lesser known acts the most ’cause they deserve to get heard and I try to help them to get more exposure.

For the struggling musicians who try to get recognition… trying to book gigs but they get rejected a lot… getting ignored by the local press (not getting any reviews, interviews, etc.)… also you’re not getting a lot of respect from other musicians around the area and not getting a lot of love from promoters. Most importantly, they’re not getting a lot of people enjoying their music.

Why does this happen? Why do the struggling acts get ignored when we all deserve to be treated with equal respect? I believe the struggling artists get ignored because…

• It’s all about the level of talent they’re in – If Albany feels this musician is not professional enough… if they feel that this musicians doesn’t sing well or doesn’t play your instrument well… chances are you’re gonna get ignored and you’ll get criticized by people in a negative way. If they feel your songs aren’t good enough, that’s when Albany can feel the need to say what they want about you. It seems that the only way to get Albany to respect you is that your songs must be absolutely great. Musicians usually bash amateurs or beginner/intermediate musicians. They only give respect to musicians who they think play on a professional level. If your song is perfect, then everyone in Albany will be nice to you. If it’s not good enough, everyone will act like assholes. That’s how it goes, I guess, right?
• It’s all about the looks/image – Have you noticed that all the popular & established bands out there are all good looking and pretty looking people? Well, if you don’t have the looks, chances are, you’re going to get ignored. Possibly be made fun of and criticized by a lot of people. Last time I checked, music is never about the looks… shouldn’t be anyway. If you look like a model and good looking… you will probably get liked by everyone.
• You don’t write radio friendly songs or pop songs people can sing & dance to – I believe the reason bands become established and popular ’cause they write a lot of “hit songs” that you can dance to at the shows. People sing along and clap to them. Now, not a lot of songwriters write songs that way. I never really cared to write songs in that way. I’m about the art and the songwriting. I don’t care what songs is considered to be radio friendly or hits… I just wanna make music. It’s just as simple as that.
• You don’t make professional sounding albums and videos – All these established bands who make a lot of success have pretty much made studio albums and professional music videos for youtube. If you don’t do any of that, chances are, you’re gonna get ignored. Not all bands have to make music in that way. What’s wrong with releasing music exclusively free to the internet? There are tons of sites to do that with like ReverbNation, Soundclick, Soundcloud, etc. It seems that people give the most respect to bands who do make albums and videos. You don’t need to make albums and videos. Just make the music. Get it on the internet and that’s it.
• You haven’t opened for a national act, won some big contest or played on a big festival – A lot of established acts had great opportunities. Opening a concert for someone famous or won some radio contest or a battle of the bands and maybe played on some big festival. People seem to give the most respect to bands who do these things. Yet they ignore the lesser known acts who don’t get any of that good stuff. The lesser known acts are stuck trying to get gigs and good opportunities themselves. How about stop focusing on the bigger bands and help out the lesser known acts? If you claim you support local music, then you should support the acts who don’t get a lot of recognition too. I’m glad the bigger bands are getting the good stuff, don’t get me wrong — it’s not about jealousy — but who cares about them, ya know? I’m sure they’ll forget who you are by now and they’re out there doing their thing.
• You don’t gig a lot – People seem to give the most respect to bands/artists who gigs all the time. Almost on a regular basis. Not all bands and artists gigs a lot. They don’t have to. Gigging is a choice. It’s all up to you whether you want to do it or not. You should give the respect to musicians if their songs are good. It shouldn’t really be about how much they gig or how much opportunities they get in their career. What about the music? There are too many struggling artists who are very talented and you guys don’t know what you’re missing. You don’t have to gig to do something you love. Who needs to gig, anyway, right? Albany is pretty much a crap music scene to begin with. Not a lot of venues to play and it’s pretty much not a music scene at all to be honest, I’ll admit it. If I wanted to start gigging again, I wouldn’t want to do it in Albany. I’d go to Nashville or something. I would move to an area where it has a music scene. (Not sure if I would do this or not, it’s just a thought but it’s a pretty good idea)…

So now you get where I’m coming from. This is not just about me. I’m NOT trying to defend myself. It’s also for other artists who are struggling. It’s idiotic how this area treats musicians but it is what it is. I think it’s like this in every music scene all over the USA to be honest. You’ll get stuff like I explained above everywhere you go. People trying to destroy your dreams and not making you feel welcome.

It’s a free country. If music is what you love to do.Then do it. Don’t listen to the haters & doubters. Music should be for you.

Kev

Somebody said on here that nobody goes out to see local original music anymore. Sorry, but I would have to respectfully disagree on that one. The way I’m seeing things is that original music unsigned/local has finally got the recognition and success it deserves. A lot of people are buying albums from original bands and a lot of people go to their shows. Original bands are getting quite the crowds these days! How do these original bands get people interested in their music?

There’s a few secrets to that.

1) Good songs

2) Good marketing/promotion

Those are a few keys that will get your original band a lot of success and recognition.

I have learned over the years that people will not support your music if it isn’t good. It’s sad but that’s the way it is and you have to look at reality. Why are a lot more people supporting original music these days? It’s because I would think people have grown tired of cover bands. The digital age also helps attract people to original music. Social media and all that stuff.

If you play original music and you gig out as much as possible… you don’t get much of a crowd at your shows. Why is that? Maybe it’s because your songwriting isn’t good enough. Maybe people aren’t into what you do musically. Maybe you need a lot of work on your music. Also, maybe you didn’t promote yourself well enough??? Not doing enough marketing.

A lot of original bands around here that I’ve seen have gotten very successful and became established acts. These bands play all original music only and they’ve gotten a lot of recognition… not only because their music is probably good… it’s mostly because these bands are good at marketing. They’re good at getting people out to their shows. If you’re not getting much of a crowd at your gigs… you can’t be blaming your area or the original music scene, that’s your job to get people out to your gigs.

You can’t just book a show and expect a huge crowd to show up. You need to think of better marketing/promotion skills: make flyers, get on the phone and call everyone you know, make show invites, start newsletters, use blogs/websites, etc.

A large following will definitely not fall in your lap. You want to be heard, it’s your job to get people interested in your music. You also have to make your music as best as possible if you want a large following. People will not support crap music, that’s all there is to it. If you’re having a tough time trying to get people to your shows no matter how much you promote yourself, then you have a lot work to do in your songwriting.

This is nothing against anybody, I’m only speaking from my own experiences. When I get my stuff out there, I tried to promote myself as much as possible. You may have seen it before but I have had plenty of people who refused to support me. People still do that too. They ignore my music like if it’s nothing to them. At least, I have some people who actually believe in my songwriting.

I’ll have to agree that my last batch of songs seemed a little rushed and needed more work so that’s why I’m taking my time to study and practice my craft of songwriting. I wanna get better next time around, hoping more people would enjoy my songs. I want to take songwriting a little more seriously from this point on. Take the lyrics, vocals, guitar parts, etc. all very seriously. While a lot of people try to tell me, “don’t worry about if other people don’t like your music, playing music should be for you” — I’m flattered people say these things but like all musicians, I want people to enjoy my music too! I’m trying my very best. Writing good music is hard. I do want my songwriting to be at my best and I’m trying!

Kev