Last weekend we worked with neverendingly enthusiastic and downright brilliant Mr Robbie Williams. No, not that Robbie Williams, that would be stupid and expensive and he probably doesn't know anything about pro tools or even own a studio. It was the Robbie Williams at the desk in the attached photo. Rob runs a studio from his house in Bedminster and we decided to go there 3 years ago to record our first single (Obsessive Compulsive) because Rob had always managed to get us sounding amazing at the Louisiana. Having an engineer that knows what you sound like and knows what you want to achieve is invaluable when recording. You can work so much more efficiently, and we really needed efficient working at the weekend. Our task was to finish the album, seven songs in 2 days. Hard work by anyone's standard but we managed it with two 12 hour days with regular breaks chatting with the chickens in the back yard. I can't wait to hear the finished results when I return from holiday. We have settled on the date and venue for the launch show, which means that the album will have to be completed by this date (otherwise there will be little point launching it). We shall be at our spiritual Bristol home of the Louisiana on 26th September with the premier Bristol party band The Get Outs and one man band dark pop sensation Matt Prosac aka Cabaret Rat. Check out their tunes here:
Obviously all share holders will get free entry to the show. We're also going to sell the album for a fiver on the night which will include a free download code for people to give to their friends. Talking of shareholders, we're doing well but we're not quite there. We have officially sold 70 of the 100 shares. We have 23 shares allocated but have not received money for. I don't think this is much of an issue, it's just a bit embarrassing chasing people for cash. So really we've only got 7 left, which is pretty pleasing. We have definitely covered the cost of all the recording and mixing and hopefully some of the duplication. But if anyone wants one of those remaining 7 shares please get in contact.
I've also had a few more ideas in terms of what we offer shareholder, partly because of the very frustrating economies of scale in music duplication, meaning we will initially have 1,000 copies of the album instead of the expected 500 and partly for actual logical reasons. I recently read an interesting article by Andrew Dubber, who is quite big in the whole 'electronic music marketing' industry, about how best to distribute promo copies of music. It led me to the concept of giving shareholders more than they need music wise so that they can pass it on to other people. This won't particularly help generate revenue but will help spread the FOTG message. So all shareholders who own more than one share will get two copies of the album, on the proviso that they give one to a friend or family member who they think might like it and haven't heard of FOTG. All single share holding share holders will receive a free download code for the following site:
The code will allow one unique download of the whole album. Again, it would be put to best use if given to a friend (obviously the CD can just be ripped to iTunes so would be pointless for the shareholder to have). It's all about targeted marketing. Promo can be so hit and miss some times. Throw enough shit at the wall (I am not saying our album is shit, it's just an analogy) and some of it will stick. Andrew Dubber's point was that you shouldn't underestimate the power of giving someone who isn't used to receiving free CDs, a free CD (compared to someone who gets 100s of free CDs a week). So that's the plan anyway, we'll see if it works.
Obviously we will do the usual bombardment of online and physical music magazines. I find this process very mundane to be honest. I have built up a reasonable contacts book by now so I don't have to do that ground work. But the process of printing labels, writing press releases and packing envelopes really isn't the most entertaining thing I can think of. Then of course there is the chasing up that needs to be done. But then reviews can tend to make or break a record. Having none obviously doesn't help matters! So it's all a necessary evil if you like.
So thus concludes today's lesson in online music marketing and recording works of art in a short space of time. Homework's due in on Monday.
Steve P
xxx
