Instant Stardom

This industry can be pretty ridiculous at times. . . ALL times.

It’s all about who you know.  And, sadly, in our local scene, there are a lot of idiots.  There are plenty of people who are phenomenal and great, but at the same time, there still seem to be dumbasses at the foundation of it all.

We had a guy want to do booking for us.  We found out later that the reason he was so eager to work with us was that he needed extra cash to support his coke addiction.  There is no professionalism anymore.

Really, there isn’t.  Of course, when the circuit of people you work with don’t wear ties or go to a regular office, it’s hard to maintain a professional mindset.  However, we’ve noticed that when there is no professionalism, there is even less work ethic.

The music industry is hung over from the wealthy years of 1970 to 1999 when nearly everything was mainstream and people bought it and all was good. There was a process to how bands, and music, were made.  Bands were discovered, recorded, put on the road and the radio and they had sex with loads of groupies.

Now, there is no process.  There is no money.  Few fans want to pay for music any more, and as a result, there is no money to produce quality bands.  More than ever, there are horrible bands in the spotlight and the masses don’t know any better than to swallow them up.

There is no money anymore, but there are still legions of “music industry professionals” who insist on getting paid, never mind the fact that they rarely do any work.  And these professionals are flocking to Denver because someone, somewhere, said it was the “next big music scene”

Recently we went through a bout with a local “company” who has relentlessly harassed both us and our record label.  This company claimed that for a mere 120K they could launch us into stardom.   These people claimed to have experience launching other bands, and the “only way to do it” was through enormous payouts.

They approached our label, Syntropic Music, first.  They declined.  A year later, they approached us with a similar offer.  Open to new ideas, we let them work with us on a limited run.

For a small chunk of change, they said they would get demographics for us – to see where we were best accepted throughout the country. The entire deal, they claimed, would take four weeks for them to send out our music, let the listeners have it, and have the results sent back.  They claimed, it would be ready for us just after our CD release party.

Four weeks passed, we called them up for the results.  They asked for another week.  Then another week.  Then another three.

TWELVE weeks later they came back to us with numbers.  Pitiful numbers.  According to the research they did, our music was sent out to fifty people.  That’s one person per state in the union – not exactly what I would call a reasonable estimation of anything.

In other words, don’t work with people who claim they can do anything for a price.  Even if they could launch you to international stardom, do you think you could sell enough albums and merch to get your 120K back?

The Denver Music Scene is loaded with these kinds of people.  After the collapse of the record industry, there are boatloads of people running around with their fistful of salvaged connections trying to make a buck.  They don’t care if your music is great or if it sucks, all they care about is the fact that your money is still green.

So, what does it take to get on top of the music industry?  Your friends, family and fans.  Not people who see you as walking dollar signs, but ones who believe in your message.  The people who will help you the most are ones who will never ask you for money.