10 things you'll realize when you release an album

[Kyo6JM]

Disclaimer: This is a shameless cross-post to several forums, but since my original post generated a lot of very interesting discussion with lots of good stories and valuable comments from other musicians, I thought I'd just go ahead and post it here as well:

I'd like to share this little list of things I learned in the six months following the release of my band's debut album.


When you release an album, you will realize that...

1. ... relying on online acquaintances to help promote your music (e.g., by writing reviews if they like it) is mostly futile. This can even harm your however loose relationship with people when they disappoint you for no good reason.

2. ... on the other hand, sometimes perfect strangers can become untiring champions of your music which feels just great.

3. ... some magazines and review pages can't even be bothered to reply to a promo offer via e-mail. Makes you really want to send them a CD just like that, eh?

4. ... a large part of many reviews is just a slightly re-phrased version of your official band biography. So better make sure it's well-written.

5. ... a surprising percentage of positive (!) reviews doesn't include a single nicely quotable sentence.

6. ... even when your guest star is very obviously featured on your entire album, some "professionals" will still write that he "guests on a couple of tracks".

7. ... you were clearly influenced by <insert band you've never heard in your life>.

8. ... some people buy your album (thanks!) but then share their download link with all their friends (***?!). It's one form of "support", I guess...

9. ... quite a few of your online acquaintances don't legally obtain music at all (they might make an exception for their favorite band).

10. ... you shouldn't expect people to stick to public announcements like "I will buy this ASAP", especially coming from other musicians.


To be continued...

[KoryLGriffin]

Interesting perspective. Thanks for the share and I look forward to the next part.

[MikeBass]

you should add, don't get pissed when someone slams it. You put it out there and someone someplace will hate it and want to tell you about it.

[Petebass]

Wow times have changed. 10 years ago a topic like this would also have included another 10 items about the crooks that run the record company and the deal they conned you into signing.

That's good and bad. I'm glad to see their power monopoly is over, but in a way it was good because before you could record something, you first had to convince people you don't know that your music is worth spending money on. Nowadays there's no screening before bands record themselves. Hence the first lot of "real" feedback you get happens to be in public... which is the root of most of the items in the original post.

[Kyo6JM]

Originally Posted by KoryLGriffin

Interesting perspective. Thanks for the share and I look forward to the next part.

Thanks! It'll probably be a while before I post more stuff. Maybe once we've done our first tour...

Originally Posted by MikeBass

you should add, don't get pissed when someone slams it. You put it out there and someone someplace will hate it and want to tell you about it.

The only review so far where we got slammed was some private thing someone posted on rateyourmusic and it basically said "I don't like instrumental music and I don't like Derek Sherinian" - so it wasn't too much of a shock that he didn't like our album, haha!

Originally Posted by Petebass

Wow times have changed. 10 years ago a topic like this would also have included another 10 items about the crooks that run the record company and the deal they conned you into signing.

That's actually a real eye-opener for me - so true, and yet I never even thought about it because we didn't deal with record companies at all! I really gotta post this elsewhere, too.

That's good and bad. I'm glad to see their power monopoly is over, but in a way it was good because before you could record something, you first had to convince people you don't know that your music is worth spending money on. Nowadays there's no screening before bands record themselves. Hence the first lot of "real" feedback you get happens to be in public... which is the root of most of the items in the original post.

Seeing how record companies wouldn't (still won't?) touch a lot of the more interesting music that was presented to them, I really prefer it this way.

[M0ses]

11 - there is no money in records any more.

Sorry, but that industry is over. You might as well give them away for free, because that will get it to more people.

[Kyo6JM]

Originally Posted by M0ses

11 - there is no money in records any more.

Sorry, but that industry is over. You might as well give them away for free, because that will get it to more people.

So how will we pay for the production in the first place? We're not in this for the money, but if you want your music to sound professional, it'll cost ya. For us it's not about making money, but breaking even at some point would be quite nice...

[superbassman2000]

Originally Posted by Kyo6JM

...but if you want your music to sound professional, it'll cost ya.

I don't completely agree with this statement--You can make a very high quality recording from home for cheap, granted you've got to learn some recording techniques and get some recording software but once you've got it, you can make as many cds as you want and the software will pay for itself.

[rtslinger]

Originally Posted by M0ses

11 - there is no money in records any more.

Sorry, but that industry is over. You might as well give them away for free, because that will get it to more people.

+1

[megadan]

Best just to get your music to as many people as possible, any way you can. The more popular it becomes the greater your chances of future success.

Also, you have no control over whether your music is available online or not (there are groups of people out there who's only mission in life is to make sure that all properties are available online for free, as quickly as possible). So you might as well do it under your own control (set up a bandcamp site with a paypal donation link, or sell vinyls with download code).

Tour your butts off.

[insomniac2295]

This is just the nature of things these days, buddy.
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen!

[megadan]

But I liked your points about reviews! Quite true!


Speaking of reviews, Shameless Plug Time!
My g/f and I run a live music photo/review/album review site:
http://www.noisography.com

If any TBers are interested in having their album reviewed, contact me via PM or email! I have a bit of a backlog right now but I'm always looking for more albums to review! We get 500 - 1000 hits a month, so it's good press for you!

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by superbassman2000

I don't completely agree with this statement--You can make a very high quality recording from home for cheap, granted you've got to learn some recording techniques and get some recording software but once you've got it, you can make as many cds as you want and the software will pay for itself.

The hardest thing to get right in a home recording, IMO, is drums. What we did for our CD is go to a ProTools pro studio and record drums with scratch vocals and guitar with their great (expensive) mics and treated room. We then took a drum submix back to my studio and recorded vocals, guitars, keys, and bass, and then took our tracks back to the "real" studio for mixdown and (expensive) vocal reverb. It worked really well and we saved a ton of money.

[MikeBass]

Originally Posted by Kyo6JM

The only review so far where we got slammed was some private thing someone posted on rateyourmusic and it basically said "I don't like instrumental music and I don't like Derek Sherinian" - so it wasn't too much of a shock that he didn't like our album, haha!

My point, like you've shown, is someone won't like it and you need to take it with a grain of salt. Like you did!

I hear often when we'll be discussing releases and such, and if I or someone else has a negitive comment, the comment is "Well, I don't see you releasing anything!".
There are two things here. Follow me k?
1) Regardless of what was released, someone is proud enough of the material to put it out there.
2) Regardless of what was released, someone is proud enough of the material to put it out there and becasue of that, opinions regarding it will be out there as well.

Myself, I'm not really proud of any of my material enough to release. My writing sucks!!! LOL!!!

[varunkapahi]

2 things i know before i will ever release an album

1. no one buys music anymore, so its meant to be free. sorry cant help it, this is the new business model. making an album is like doing a free gig so to send out your music to more people

2. if you put it up for free, you wont be disappointing and if the music is good then it will get further hits

[faulknersj]

Albums should be looked at as a promotional tool to increase the number of people you draw to your live performances. This is where you make your $ and receive a return on your investment.

[varunkapahi]

Originally Posted by faulknersj

Albums should be looked at as a promotional tool to increase the number of people you draw to your live performances. This is where you make your $ and receive a return on your investment.

+10000000000000

[Kyo6JM]

You guys need to realize that a) we're a multi-national project right now, so we can't just meet up and play a gig anytime we please and b) even many established bands in our genre are having a hard time touring without losing money. I'm talking about the likes of Spock's Beard, who can't even afford to tour in their own country, or The Flower Kings - and most of those bands have vocals, making them a lot more commercial and accessible than our instrumental stuff. So really, the idea of us making money from live gigs is rather unrealistic.

Which won't keep us from playing a few gigs (hopefully later this year). But it really is going to be more for the fun of it.

[Schlyder]

Years ago, albums were where bands made their money, and they lost money touring.
Nowadays it is the exact opposite.

[Kyo6JM]

Originally Posted by Schlyder

Years ago, albums were where bands made their money, and they lost money touring.
Nowadays it is the exact opposite.

That depends on the band. Bon Jovi, U2? Sure. Smaller bands, not so much. If they can get booked at all, that is.