This is a spoof song/video from the band Family Force 5 (who incidentally, I am bringing over from the USA in May to play some gigs here in the uk!) which I think is quite funny.
The band, although relatively unheard of here are big in the states and have appeared next to the likes of The Pussycat Dolls and many more.....
Many people ask me what I think of myspace as someone in the industry, do record labels really look at it people ask me, the answer is yes, sometimes they do, usually after you have sent them a demo though. Labels don't tend to look through finding the best bands but if they hear a band they like they will often go on to their myspce to get a feel for their popularity.
Personally, I think that Myspace is a fantastic tool for bands. Bands no longer need websites as they have a myspace site that gives fans all they need, music, video, a blog and up to date news but I do have a problem with people that say myspace is one of the best marketing tools around.
Having a myspace is one thing, and yes sometimes people do just find your page as they trawl through BUT the fact is, you still need to market your myspace if you want people on it. The funny thing is, I must get about 3 emails a month from new sites that offer bands the chance to 'market' their music by having a page on thier site. Most of these are exactly the same as myspace, they have the music player, they enable you to add video and upload your gigs but again, you have to market your page if you expect people to look at it.
So why on earth are we about to launch our very own version, musicfinity? We believe we are going to do something different. Musicfinity will offer you all of the thngs above but will be a site to help bands, a site that will give bands all of the tools needed to market thmselves.
Musicfinity wil allow bands to send a press release to local and national media at the click of a button. Thier fans will be able to advertise the band to all of their contacts online at the click of a button. Bands will be offered gigs, some on fringe stages at some of the uk's biggest festivals. Basically, everything a band needs to enlarge their fan base and get their music out there should be on this site and just about all of it will be free.
And just to show that we are not completely against myspace and similar sites, it will automatically update the top 5 sites whenever a band updates their musicfinity page.
So hopefully, we can do something different and help bands build a name for themselves..... time will tell!!!
Well, here I am working on The Ultimate Showcase, a competition that as a record lable we run in conjunction with Ultimate Events. If you don't know what The Ultimate Event is then you are missing out on a good one! The Ultimate Event is now in its 13th year and is an annual Christian music event at Alton Towers, the biggest theme park in the UK.
The Ultimate showcase is a competition that invites unsigned Christian artists to battle it our to become the the opening act at the gig. In the case of next years gig they will be supporting the likes of Toby Mac, Delirious and Ayiesha Woods.
So why am I writing about it? Well, because its really doing my head in at the moment. The website that we are running it off is over a month overdue and because of that we can't get the live semi finals sorted. By the end of the day, I want to have venues sorted for both the semis and also the final and know what other acts to get in headlining.
The best thing about this competition is the varitry of acts we have entering, its great to see the talent thats out there and see them come into their own as they play at their best to try and get their place in the finals. Our main vision as a record lable came through running youth events in Worcester with the local churches. Its where we met most of the bands we started working with and also saw te sruggles bands had at getting a big break.
On top of that, we noticed that some of the bands that were absolutely superb couldn't make it because they were Christians. The lable of 'Christian' had such a stigma to it that as soon as they mentioned it, people turned off and didn't want to listen. Where did this stigma come from? Well, personally I think many areas, as a Christian myself I avoid the people shouting on the street about going to hell, I hate it if someone knocks on my door and tries to tell me why I should accept Jesus into my heart, I HATE it when I am given tracks in the street! It really is no wonder that Christians get pigeon holed. The only ones that seem to be out there sharing their faith seem to be doing it in a way that is so irrelivant to our culture that they earn the rest of us a bad name.
So how are we supposed to act? Well, this is open to discussion and I would love to hear other people's thoughts on it so leave some comments! I will put my toughts down on the matter in a few days.
In the meantime, back the the Showcase. This is a great opportunity for bands to get a good gig, get noticed by thousands and build their fan base. Not because they are Christians or because of any message in their music but because they have great music. I would love to see more bands in the charts and on things like MTV. Did you know that Delirious are one of the only bands to have had 5 top 20 hits but not been shown on Top of the Pops (RIP)? Why? Because their lyrics might have offended people? Well, that doesn't seem to apply for a lot of other bands who really do have offensive lyrics. It will be interesting to see how we do, getting Christian bands just as far as we want to get bands that are not Christians on our lable as well. I wonder if we will have more problems?
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