Artist friendly!

Time to time I get artists that are disappointed on the blog because they think I'm mean to artists. I usually ask them what they want me to write about? It's almost always that I should give them practical tipoffs or post looking from their angle of the industry.

The artist angle is though so very common. Every artist blog is just that. Also, I'm not an artist, so me writing about your struggle would be not correct at all.

I guess many are after that I should tell them about a magical page with a golden button that just kickstarts any career. Sure there are good places that I can make tipoff on. I do it inside the blogs all the time. I guess they want me to do readers digest and just take out the important parts in one post.

The problem is that every career is unique. These tipoff for everyone will be hard to keep up or totally wrong, a blog on that would be Aris Take. A nice blog but just around things for the masses. And quite frankly I guess Ari more famous for that then his music?

Still, I will try to write a post a week that more tends to go against the artist side, a smart tip or two that is hands on. To find these look for the tag artist friendly in my tags and you will find them and escape my usually nagging.

Also this year I will go harder against the industry. Time to reveal some really bad apples that you thought was good.

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The hard truth on showcase festivals

For fuck sake, you are not that important.

So read what is a showcase festival. Okay, so this is an arena to get your career forward. You are here to showcase not play a festival gig.

So complaining that it cost you money to go on a showcase festival I can inform you that there are bands taking their career serious enough to go to the other side of the world to play a showcase festival. So you complaining about going a couple of miles in a car are just pathetic.
Also if you start a company (which actually an artist career is) you spend at least the first three years just spending money on PR. Why would this be different just because we are dealing with music? If you don't want to spend money on your career, well stay at the local bar and play there, but don't complain that you don't go anywhere.
And never, never ask the festival how you should find your money.

Also when you only can play on weekends since you much take off time from work. Well just that you won't take time off work is a good sign you are not a proband more a hobby band. And on a Showcase festival, you try to get just pro-bands since the hobby bands are more just a hobby you are not calculating to become something you are just happy to play. That is good but don't bother people that want to take you somewhere with it. Here is more around that theme.

It's hard to fill out to apply for a showcase festival so I rather send a mail asking if I can play.
Oh good, the forms are not tricky, yes they will be tricky since you don't have your shit together. In the field to show a live video and you don¨t have one, well if you don't have one your probably not ready to be on a showcase festival. This is why these fields are there.

On a normal festival, you usually deal with booking agencies that have all this for you. Showcase festival deals with the new ones and a good sorting point is to give some simple questions like, do you have a bio, a video a Spotify link can take off quite many artists that shouldn't play on a showcase festival at all.

PERSONAL:
The backstage passes have also their own story. It started very very long ago that a band that we had on the record label was collecting backstage passes and we compete with them to have the most. They have quit now but we kept going. Over 30 years of career yes we have been on quite many events. The fun is that every pass has its own story and I can just put them in front of me and I can tell you a special story around just that one. After 2010 I have also picked up all pins and other stuff and added on the badge I'm wearing at that festival so in the bigger ones I really look like a Christmas tree.
No, we have never counted them, but they are in around the order we actually got them. These will be a pain in the ass to move when we changing office.

Live at Heart Tip Off, Use your social media.

This is a part of a series of a tip off I give in front of the showcase Live at Heart that is going on in Örebro 30 of August to 2 of September. The tip off is not just for Live at heart would work on any showcase festival.

Use your social media.

Actually, use media over all. If you are chosen to play in a showcase festival, the local media reports on events like that. So go a head send a press letter to the local media in that city. Take a couple of hours to scan the internet. This also makes you stand out so this media usually choose a couple of acts that they will say: Don't miss this during the festival. Sending out make that chance much bigger.

Then, of course, make a facebook event and invite relevant people. Post about it a couple of times. This is really important. Both for the festival but also for you to build up that you are chosen to this festival.

Live at Heart Tip off, You can drink beer later!

This is a part of a series of a tip off I give in front of the showcase Live at Heart that is going on in Örebro 30 of August to 2 of September. The tip off is not just for Live at heart would work on any showcase festival.

You can drink beer later!

Yes, we know after a really exhausting show it's really nice to get backstage and grab that cold beer that waits in the dressing room. This is really not a good time to drink beer. Just minutes after the show get back out there in the audience and mingle.

I have been both sides my self. I have seen bands and wanted to get their contact information and answers to some questions. Hey in some cases I wanted to book them to Live at Heart. But they never come out again and I need to get to the next show. And since time is going fast I manage to write to them and in the end that opportunity they didn't know was there is lost.

One of my jobs as a manager is to actually go backstage and get my bands out of there to mingle some 20 minutes with new fans or industry people. Sometimes it's the beer that keeps them, but in most cases is that friends of them are invited backstage and keep on talking how good the show is and so on. And it's hard to say to a friend, excuse me I come back to you I just need to work the room. In many cases that are my job to be that irritating person that nags them back out.

Some also go back and then they go directly on the stage taking things off. That is necessary. But if you are not a  solo artist, send someone to work the room and the rest pick things off and join in when they are ready.