From: Hollerado
Subject: Thanks

Hello Mr. Lefsetz
I am a longtime reader of your column, first time writer. I wanted to say thanks for talking about us last week. Besides  getting a whole bunch of new people to take notice of hollerdo, it really meant a lot to me personally to have you talk  about what we are doing.

We are a DIY band through and through. I would love for you to get to know our band a little more.

-We come from a small town in Ontario called Manotick

-We have been touring relentlessly for 4 years

-For our first american tour, no-one wanted to book us. So, instead of booking shows, we drove as far way from our  homes in canada as we could get. We would then show up at venues where a show was going on and tell them we  were 2000 miles away from home, had a gig booked down the street but it somehow feel through. "Would you guys  mind if we played a short set here tonight?" IT WORKED! We played countless shows this way.

-Since we rarely got paid more than a few drinks and sometimes pizza, we needed to make gas money.

-We had a laptop with the the tracks to our demo CD. We would go to best buy, get a CD burner and a couple spindles of blank cds. We would burn a hundred demos in the parking lot and then return the CD burner to Best Buy. we would then put the demos in ziplock bags. (hence the name of our first record….record in a bag)

-Once we had a stash of demos we would drive to the nearest mall and set up shop in front of Hot Topic (probly the most shameless thing we have done for our band). We would stand there for hours, with discmen and demos asking anyone who would stop to take a listen if they wanted to buy a demo in a bag. We could sell the discs for 5 bucks and still make $4.50 to put towards gas.

-We did this for 2 years. Anything to avoid having a real job, right?

-In febuary 2009, we released our first full length album for FREE online.

-That same month we invented the RESIDENCY TOUR. We took the old concept of playing a residency one day a week at the same bar and made it psyco. We booked 7 residencies for the month, one for each night of the week. Every Sunday of that cold February we played in at the same club in Boston, every monday at Piano’s in NYC, Tuesday was Lacolle Quebec, Wednesdays- Hamilton ontario, Thursdays – Toronto, Friday – Ottawa, Saturday – Montreal. Repeat 4
times. 28 shows in a row. over 12,000 miles of crap canadian winter driving in 28 days.

– In febuary 2010, we started our own record label to release "record in a bag" in stores in Canada. Although every distributor we talked to said it was impossible, we were finally able to convince one (Arts and Crafts) that we could literally package "record in a bag" in a ziplock bag filled with goodies. So far we have sold over 10,000 copies of it in  Canada. With no label support, our first single "Juliette" went top 5 in mainstream Canadian alternative radio.

– Things began to take hold in Canada and we soon became privy to the Canadian grant system for touring acts. Still, when they gave us a budget to play a showcase in China, we took the budget and stretched it for all it was worth. We turned it into a 3 week tour deep into china. We recorded a song in mandarin chinese and released it on the internet in China. We were able to return for another tour 6 months later.

-We can play our instuments. We play live and we play live alot, hundreds of shows a year, we sweat. We take requests. We play covers we don’t know. We play for the audience, as much as eachother, because without them we would still be in back Manotick, working jobs we hated. We play anywhere anytime. It is what we love more than anything.

-We listen to good bands (Petty, Roy Orbison, The Clash, Booker T, Paul Butterfield, John Prine). We have a strong conviction that pop music does not have to suck.

– We are 4 best friends (2 of the guys are brothers). We intend to do this for a long time. We want to have careers and catalogues that we can be proud of. Personally, i think, our song for the video you talked about is not nearly our stongest. Since then we have written a whole bunch more, and like anything else, they are getting better with practice.

-I truly believe we have a few songs on our album that really have heart and are really about things. i’d love for you to listen to our record, because although we are happy with what the video has accomplished creatively and exposure-wise, we are a rock band and the bottom line is that we make songs.

it is for these reasons that i would like to invite you to see us live when we play in Los Angeles later this month.

thanks for reading

sincerely

-Menno Versteeg

ps. Would you mind sending me your address so i can mail you a copy of "record in a bag"?

HOLLERADO.COM
facebook.com/hollerado
twitter.com/hollerado
myspace.com/hollerado

I’m in Syracuse.

Yes, I went to the Dinosaur.  I even went to Heid’s!

How BBQ blossomed in upstate New York, I’ll never know.  Just like how white sausages in the region are named "Coneys".  But I got the full on feel.  Of a place off the beaten path where houses are cheap but the living is good, where people look after each other and there’s a scene.

I’m here for the Music Industry Conference.  Liz Nowak wanted to create a SXSW for her region, this is the inaugural year.  And you meet these people via e-mail, you show up in their town and you’ve never even spoken to them.  I had no idea until I went to the Hall of Fame dinner at the Dinosaur that Liz was in a wheelchair.

My mother just had back surgery.  Back in April, to be exact.  She could barely walk before, doesn’t walk a whole hell of a lot better now.  But I keep telling her people spend their whole lives in wheelchairs.  In Liz’s case, it was a car accident at nineteen.  She’s been through the emotional trauma, but she’s so bright and sunny and alive, without being fake in the least, that she’s an inspiration, makes me feel guilty for focusing on my own problems.

And after my presentation today, Max Weinberg took the stage.

People talk a lot of shit about Max.  And after hearing he wanted to meet me and getting the perfunctory glazed over look as he shook my hand I’m wondering if what they say is right, but his interview with Big Mike was utterly fascinating.

Last night I watched that Springsteen documentary on HBO.

I went to dial up Bill Maher on my Slingbox, but the channel was already on HBO and this doc had just begun.

I’m a huge fan of "Darkness".  I played "Candy’s Room" for my ex on our very first date.  I bought all the Springsteen albums in order. Saw the band at the Bottom Line the year before "Born To Run".  So I was really looking forward to this documentary.

You can miss it.

It’s not that it’s bad.  It’s just that it’s not that good.  Oh, let me clarify that…  It’s good, but it’s not great!  And in today’s world, we only have time for great.  There are too many other diversions.  I kept waiting for the payoff, and when it was done an hour and a half later I was frustrated, I wanted my time back.

But I could have listened to Max Weinberg all night.

Bruce is a legend, but sometimes others tell your story better than you do.  Like Howard Stern, Bruce is best doing his act.  When he’s not singing, when he’s not performing…he’s not riveting.

But Max was.

He told the story of becoming a drummer.

But even better was the story of becoming Bruce’s drummer.  Answering the ad in the "Village Voice".  Taking direction from the Boss.

That’s why they call him that.  Most people don’t know that.  Because Bruce acts like the Boss!  He’s in charge, he tells you what to do.  You may be a band member, but you’re not equal.  It’s his name on the marquee, as much as you care, he cares even more. And while you’re watching football, he’s writing music.  Like "Born In The U.S.A."  Written and recorded, twice, in half an hour.  The classic take is the second.

So Max is going to college, playing for $275 a week in the pit for "Godspell", and living at home.  He gets the gig with Bruce, by following the instruction in the ad and not being a junior Ginger Baker, and the plum gig he accepts pays fifty bucks a week.

At this point in the narrative, Max quoted Duke Ellington, who said: "A musical profit outweighs a financial loss."  Tell that to all the wannabes who just want to get paid.

I mean watching that doc last night was like peering into a time capsule.  All that time spent getting it right…  No one pays that much attention to music anymore, and if you want to impact society invent Facebook, and if you want to get rich, be an athlete or work on Wall Street or invent the aforementioned social network.

In other words, music is once again for musicians.

After Bruce broke up the band, and Max referenced the date to the minute, Max took a job at the BMG Record Club, learning the music business.  This was after going back to college, being the son Springsteen’s mother wanted Bruce to be, and getting his degree.  He didn’t want to set a bad example for his children.  He even spent a month in law school.  But when he sat down to play the drums, something was missing.  He had to think about it, he just couldn’t play.  He may have only been off by a millisecond, but he knew.  He quit his job and became a drummer once again.

And Max did tell the story of running into Conan outside the Carnegie Deli and pitching him ideas for O’Brien’s nascent late night show.  But in the unfolding story it kept being reinforced that Max was a musician and a hustler.  If you’re not a hustler, you just can’t make it.  You’ve got to hone your craft, look for opportunities and make your opportunities.

And one other thing…  Max said Bill Ludwig put two guys out of business.  He invented the bass pedal.  That used to be a separate guy, hitting the big bass drum.  And then there was the cymbal stand.  Suddenly, one guy could do the job of three.  If you think technology replacing musicians is a new thing, you just don’t know history.

Max wouldn’t have been as good on television.  Certainly not as good in L.A. or New York.  It’s when you’re relaxed, off the beaten path, when you can stretch out and be the real you that you’re riveting.

How you play in Syracuse is just as important as how you perform in the metropolis.  Because you never know who’ll hear you, you never know who’ll spread the word.  Especially in this era where one person can be heard worldwide.

Meanwhile, Steven Page tracked me down.  He lives in Syracuse now.  He’s picking me up for dinner at 7:30.  See you later!

I don’t trust research, methodology is key, and is so often suspect, and even worse, research will tell you where you’ve been, not where you’re going, but I point you to this recent study by Edison Research to counteract all the B.S. spewed by traditionalists in this industry as well as the blowhards at terrestrial radio.

We keep hearing radio is king.  That’s what major labels focus on, getting acts on the radio.  But would you be surprised to find out radio listening is cratering amongst the youth?

Time spent listening to radio by 12-24 year olds has dropped from 2 hours and 43 minutes in 2000 to 1 hour and 24 minutes today.

Time spent surfing the Web has jumped from 59 minutes a day to 2 hours and 52 minutes.

Yes, the study still says the majority find out about new music via radio, not sure I believe this, but the point is the same people saying radio is king and is flourishing are the same people who just couldn’t understand ten years ago why anybody would want an MP3, never mind a broadband connection to download one and watch YouTube which didn’t yet exist.

What do we hear constantly?  That you need the major label?  The major label’s main relationship is with radio, majors have lost their distribution dominance, anybody can distribute via iTunes, the dominant retailer, if this continues to decline, then..?

We need filters.  And historically, the majors have provided this.  But recently they’ve been doing a shitty job of this.  Focused on purveying that which can get on Top Forty radio, they’re abandoning all those who couldn’t care less about the format, which based on the statistics in this survey seems to be the growing number.

Someone e-mailed me this article about the survey with a public radio spin.  It’s the easiest to read of the three links I’m forwarding, so I’d start here:

Fairy Tales Can Come True

The article links to another site which condenses some of the salient points:

Edison Research and Radio-Info.com present "The American Youth Study; Radio’s Future II"

The study is here.  Be sure to click through the presentation down the page, there you’ll find a plethora of statistics if you want to know where we’ve been, which is very different from where we were ten years ago…where will we be ten years from now?

The American Youth Study 2010 – Part One: Radio’s Future

Geolocation Services: Find a Smartphone, Find a Customer

You should read this article.  Especially if you’re clueless.  It’s a great primer.

I’ll excerpt the two paragraphs that jumped out at me:

"Mark West used Foursquare to entice customers with a sweet offer. Mr. West opened Monique’s Chocolates, a chocolate shop in Palo Alto, Calif., in January. Like many small businesses, the shop serves a narrow demographic – chocolate lovers who live within a few miles – and reaching its target audience is tricky.

At first, Mr. West tried print advertising, but was disappointed by the return on his investment. For Valentine’s Day, he bought a $360 ad in the local newspaper that attracted only about five customers; another ad in a local magazine cost $300 and drew only one customer.

Shortly afterward, Mr. West went on Foursquare and offered a promotion: buy one truffle and get one free. The promotion cost nothing (other than the expense of the free truffles) and attracted about 60 new customers, about one-third of whom have become regulars.

‘My key is to get you here to try something,’ said Mr. West. ‘I feel that if you like chocolate you’ll be back. From a retail perspective, your big hope is just to get the guy to show up. That’s the biggest challenge.’"

In other words, old wave advertising doesn’t work.  You go through the motions, you buy the space, but you get no results.  Maybe you change your creative, change your team, but the problem is your entire philosophy.

You reach people today via the Internet.  Both on their computers and handhelds.

"Recently, the bar’s managers noticed that check-ins declined after 2 a.m. on Saturdays. In response, the Destination Bar started holding a late-night happy hour – spreading the word through social media. A rise in check-ins and sales followed. ‘I look at the Foursquare check-ins as a representation, like the Nielsen ratings,’ Mr. Maccarone said. ‘You can tell a lot about your audience based on the breakdown of the people who are checking in because they are a good sample set of your regular customer base.’"

Needless to say, geolocation services are great for anybody in traditional bricks and mortar retail.  If you’ve still got a record shop, utilize them.

But this is especially great for live venues.  Get people to come in, give them rewards.

They said the Internet was antisocial, that no would leave his house, that people would no longer speak to each other.  This is the kind of hogwash the old wave media prognosticators put forth, they’re clueless!  Of course, the underlying product is key.  But record companies have execs making deals and then too few twentysomethings who know how to work the social media game to artists’ advantage.

I’d say to change the compensation system.  Incentivize the young ‘uns.  Come work for us and we’ll pay you on results, how much revenue we reap.  And grant you stock too.

All the best and the brightest are in tech, not music.  Primarily because the baby boomers froze them out of music.  Which is why the baby boomer enterprises are in trouble.  Because no one wants to work for them, everybody wants to do it their own way.

Yes, music is not like Facebook.  In so many apps, from Facebook to Twitter, it’s the public that enters the information, that provides the creativity.  In music, it’s dependent upon the artist.  But music is not utilitarian, it’s an extra, that people have to be led to.  And that’s where the new social media marketing techniques are key.

And the goal is not to dun those not interested into playing, that game no longer works in an unlimited universe.  Now you’ve got to get people to stick to you, and slowly grow your key tribe.  It’s not only music and tickets, but so much more.  You’re creating a club.

So, do it for yourself.  Create check-in points from your history, allow people to see your roots.  Don’t depend on the fat cats, they don’t seem to get it.

P.S. Don’t worry so much about getting paid!  Like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, focus on building a sticky platform/attraction first.  The money will come after!  It may not even come in ways you can foresee!  Stop talking about getting paid and start building your tribe!  Fans of acts will give them ALL their money.  Then again, listening to a track once, enduring it on the radio, is different from becoming a fan.  If you’re not in the fan business, you don’t have a career.  And if you don’t have a career, you’re not gonna make any money, not for long anyway.