fuck yeah.

actually, these days there are a considerable amount of solid indy labels run by musicians/former-musicians (usually ones who were once fucked over by the business) who will cut you a very unselfish deal to help get you out on the road, and even let you sign with different indy labels abroad. just gotta keep your head on a swivel, and not only read the fine print but revise the fine print with people smarter than you before agreeing to sign shit.

this debate is my life's work and i can tell you mp3 sales are not the future. this video is almost word perfect. Forget about being an instant star and do some work like everybody else. Word.

"You'll make $1000 a night in t-shirt sales"

Exactly. As they said in Spaceballs, "Merchandising, Merchandising, Merchandising!"

A few free concerts and songs on your web page are advertising for you band, not the end-all product. Get the fans crazy about your stuff, and they'll beg to throw money at you.

video made private - *dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by jonny.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Friday, April 13th, 2007 12:47pm PDT - promote requested by guitarwolf.

instant upvote for anything dick dale

Dick Dale is speaking from the perspective of not only one of the worlds great guitarists and musicians, not only from the perspective of someone who basically started the genre of surf guitar music, but also from a highly respected infamous artist.

Most people are not and will never be where he is.

I am glad I'm signed to a major. They have the PR and distribution tentacles that wrap around the globe, something I could NEVER do on my own. I am now on Amazon (in every country), iTunes, Bleep, Napster, Rhapsody, Starbucks, and every other major music outlet around the world. Again, something that almost noone could DIY.

Giving away a bunch of mp3's on myspace (or your own website which noone will ever look at) is a fools errand. It's just more noise to an ever-expanding signal. The trick is breaking through that fuzz, and getting some attention which is nearly impossible to do on your own. There are exceptions to this rule, (and I'm sure someone will say, "oh yeah, but The______Band made it just on their MySpace page!!) ... but it's pretty much "The Rule".

Bands have always given away their music for free. We call them "Demos".

"and that's the reason why the system hates Dick Dale"

I think what he's saying is there are two ways to do it. Signing with a major is going to give you more instant gratification. Big money up front, picture on the cover of a magazine or in a magazine, your music distributed far and wide but it's at a cost of losing some control and full ownership of your music etc..

The other way is to bust your hump and do it all on your own terms. Take a few years to build up a following and by that he doesn't mean throw some free MP3's on your MySpace page, he means get yourself booked in clubs and put yourself out there and bust your ass marketing yourself.

You'll be happier with 100% of a small pie then you will be with 2% of a much bigger pie is what I think he is saying.