There are countless reports around the web about the way Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms make it increasingly difficult for pages of any size to reach their audience. Your site or music project may have thousands of likes, but you’re often lucky if more than a hundred or more people see any single post. That is, unless you pay to ‘boost’ your post, in which case the exposure received correlates directly to how much you’re willing to spend.
Still, despite the restraints put on organic reach most blogs and artists still rely on Facebook to serve as a hub for their audience. The number of people who take it upon themselves to visit a music site every day is smaller now than ever before, as more and more people rely on social feeds and RSS tools to find the latest and greatest content to consume. Your post may only reach 1% of your total Facebook audience, but that is still 1% more exposure than your content would have gotten otherwise, right?
This week, after eight years of building an audience for my own music blog, I typed Facebook into my web browser only to discover I had mysteriously been logged out of my account overnight. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but once I logged back in it became clear something had transpired while I slept. A notification from Facebook informed me two posts on my blog’s page had been reported for linking to a site that was infringing on someone’s copyrights. The posts in question were both song streams, each from different artists, and each was posted using the official stream made available to all members of the press (one was even sourced from Billboard). No downloads were present, nor were any links to downloads. In short, the report was bogus.
I assumed, perhaps foolishly, that this warning from Facebook was a one time thing that wouldn’t matter as soon as I clicked past it. Once I did however, I realized the problem was far more pressing than it seemed. Without warning, Facebook had completely removed my blog’s page, along with the 10,000 likes we had been able to accrue over the last eight years of content creation. Every staffer who had listed our blog as their place of employment also had their employment status erased. Facebook, essentially, deleted all signs of our existence on their server.
As you can image, I quickly went from being not at all concerned to as mad as humanly possible with a side of panic-stricken fear. I scoured the Facebook support pages, hoping to find a number so I could contact someone in Palo Alto to help me sort out the mess I had found myself in, but as any of you who have encountered problems with Facebook may already know there is no call center to dial. Facebook handles its support issues entirely online, and there really isn’t a way to just ‘call someone.’ I eventually found a page related to claims of infringement, and there I found a line that sent chills down my spine:
“Facebook is not in a position to adjudicate disputes between third parties. If you believe these reports are not being made in good faith or are inaccurate, we suggest you or your legal counsel contact the complaining party to discuss this further.”
For those of you unable to decipher the legal talk above, Facebook is basically saying that they will remove posts/pages tagged for copyright, but they will not hear disputes from those accused of sharing the copyrighted material. They claim those matters should be resolved by legal council, but they NEVER provided me with a name for my site’s accuser, so even if I had council there would be no one for them to contact.
I spoke with several friends in the music community, and while some knew of others with similar problems, not a single person could provide me with a solution. More than twenty-four hours have passed since my site’s page disappeared from Facebook, and unless a miracle occurs soon it seems it will remain gone forever. That means all the work myself and my dozens of contributors have put in to building our FB hub is now gone, as well as all the photos and exclusive bits of information shared through posts on that page. Worse even still is the fact I have no idea who accused my site of wrongdoing, and there seems to be no chance that will change at any point in the future. Some unknown power saw it necessary to deal a blow to my team’s efforts, and now we are all suffering as a result.
The impact of our absence from Facebook will take days or even weeks to fully understand, but we’ve already noticed a decline in organic sharing. Readers can still post our content to their FB walls, but without a hub to share our reviews its clear we will need to find new methods of bringing our latest and greatest features to the attention of people online.
If you’re reading this and have any idea how to help, or if you know someone at Facebook I could call to plead for some understanding, please reach out. Otherwise, let this be a lesson to you that Facebook can and will strike you down without notice or a fair chance at explaining whatever wrongdoing you are accused of doing. They are in control of your ability to share, and though you may believe otherwise it’s the people with influence (from money or celebrity) who tell them what does and does not get exposed. I don’t know what, if anything, can be done to stop this, but I do knot it’s not right. Unfortunately, it’s also not technically ‘wrong.’ It’s just the way things are, and right now that has left me in a very unhappy position.
James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder ofAntique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
Hey there, everyone! Glad to see you found time in your busy schedule to spend a few minutes browsing our blog. The feature you are about to enjoy was written with music bloggers in mind, but its message can be applied to anyone hoping to make a big impact with web traffic around the month’s biggest holiday.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
It’s officially the month of February, which means we have less than two weeks until the most despised, commercial, and shallow holiday of all time is upon us. Yes, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and if you’re a blogger worth their weight in digital text then you’ve already begun brainstorming content you can run around the world’s biggest Hallmark holiday. If you haven’t thought to begin planning yet, you might want to, but before you do that you should read the rest of this post.
Having been writing about alternative music for over half a decade at this point, I’ve grown accustomed to seeing a flood of similar content make its way through my feeds every time the second week of February rolls around. Be it lists of the best and/or worst love songs of all time, or a collection of the most romantic moments in certain films, it seems everyone in pop culture writing believes the best way to reach readers is through regurgitated list ideas that offer one or two variations, if that, from every other list found online. I don’t entirely disagree, but I do think we are all doing a disservice to our readers by settling for the first few ideas that come to mind. We all know Whitney Houston sang what is arguably the most romantic love song of all time, and we also know that no one will ever top J. Geils’ anthem for the heartbroken. We also know that Jesse Lacey wrote quite a few songs in the early years of Brand New that may or may not have been his own version of a love song. All of this has been listed, debated, and covered to death. It still gets traffic, but so does sharing the number one clip on YouTube on any given day. If you’re okay with easy traffic, fine, but if you want to create exciting content then you need to think a bit more outside the box.
I’m not putting down listicles, and I sure as hell don’t want to make you believe that discussing the songs that do or do not evoke a sense of romance is stupid. It’s not. These conversations have been had throughout the history of pop culture, and as far as I can tell they will continue for as long as there are multiple artists creating art simultaneously. We all engage with art in our own way, and we all find the songs that mean something special to us for reasons entirely our own. We might relate to the romantic anthems played on the radio, but tracks like “My Heart Will Go On” and “Tiny Dancer” are rarely the songs that hit closest to home. They’re thematic staples, and as such they elicit a similar reaction from almost everyone who hears them. They’re safe, at least to an extent, and in my opinion covering them is rather boring. There is something to be said for giving people what they want, but there is a lot more to be said for someone who tries to give people something they don’t know they need. That’s what great writing does, and as crazy as it sounds Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to forge real connections with your readers through original content.
Why is now such a prime time to connect with your audience? The answer is actually quite simple: Love.
You see, we all have an idea of what love is and we go through lives trying our best to find someone that we believe compliments that idea best, but at the end of the day the numerous way we as a culture define love is almost too varied to measure. Some see it as co-dependency, while other see it as giving all of yourself in the name of another’s happiness. Still others see the whole thing as a marketing scam, built by corporations and engrained into society at large through massive marketing schemes. I’m not here to say whether any of those ideas are right or wrong, but I am here to encourage you to share you idea of love, regardless of what its definition may be. People everywhere wonder through life asking themselves if they truly understand what it means to love or to be loved, and it’s only through sharing our own thoughts and experiences that we as a global community will be able to really grasp its meaning. That’s not to say your content will change the world if you’re simply being yourself, but it might change someone’s perspective on life, and if you can do that there really is no limit to your capabilities as a writer.
Let me give you an example: Last year, my friend Dan Bogosian wrote a wonderful piece for Consequence Of Sound about his relationship with Saves The Day, as well as the person responsible for introducing him to the band’s sound. It’s a great piece filled with emotional ups and downs that I must encourage everyone to read, but if you don’t have time I’ll summarize by saying that Dan’s experience with the music of Saves The Day has taught him not only a greater appreciation for life, but also for his relationships with others. Through reading his words, I too found a new appreciation for the people in my life. I was carried back to the times when friends both close and long since forgotten introduced me to music and films that would go on to change my life. I thought of the people I thanked and the ones I did not, the ways we grew apart, and the impact distance can have on even the closest of friends.
I wasn’t present for Dan’s experiences with his friend or his times seeing Saves The Day live, but reading his words it’s impossible to ignore his love of both. As he struggles to understand why things change over time, he touches on universal concerns we all share about our relationship with those around us, and in doing so he forges a connection with us. We too know those feelings, though not because of the exact same circumstances, and learning how someone else got through those times influences the way he live moving forward.
When you’re planning and hopefully drafting Valentine’s Day content this week, think of the experiences and memories in your life that taught you lessons about love. Find the songs that set the perfect mood for that first kiss you’ll never forget, as well as the album that helped you forget the lover who couldn’t be trusted. Reflect on all of this and choose the stories you’re most comfortable with sharing, then proceed to write until you cannot write any more. Pour yourself into these pieces, letting readers know why you do or do not believe in love and the music that helps cement your belief. If you can do that, people will respond. They might not comment at first, but they will carry your words and thoughts with them. They may spin the same songs, or they may relate to the situation being described and think of songs they know that fit the mood even better. Whatever the case, they will connect with you, and forging that connection is the first step towards creating a lasting and rewarding relationship with your audience.
Hello, everyone! This post is a little later than usual, but we’ve been traveling in preparation for the upcoming holiday season. Things will be back to normal tomorrow.
This site exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Every week I speak with at least one young writer who believes the world is their oyster and nothing can stop their rise to the highest heights of the music business. At the same time, I also hear from writers with anywhere from two to ten years of experience who, despite being extremely talented, have been unable to land a full time role in the entertainment business. If anything, they have a handful of freelance gigs or perhaps even something part time, but generally speaking neither of these situations provide enough financial support for the individual to have only one job, let alone plan for the future.
You can hopefully piece this together on your own, but all of those veteran writers mentioned above started their pursuit of full time industry employment with little to no doubt in their mind that success would come in time. Most probably underestimated how long it would take to find that success, but their drive to chase their dreams was present nonetheless. The story I know best is my own, so allow me to further illustrate this point with a tale from my own journey to the job I have now.
I started writing about music during the fall of my Sophomore year at Ferris State University. By spring, my passion had lead me to leave the site that gave me my start and step out on my own, which began with a blogspot URL and quickly turned into the webzine I still help run to this day, Under The Gun Review. Our first year was amazing, and by the time we hit our one-year anniversary we had already begun averaging at least 25,000 uniques a month. For a kid from a town with less than 3000 people, I thought we were on top of the world, and I soon began telling my parents that blogging would be the thing that eventually helped me find a career in music. They were cautious, as I probably should have been, but they supported me because they knew I was passionate about my work.
By spring 2010 I was getting ready to graduate from Ferris and blogging as much as I possibly could every day of the week. UTG was bringing in over 100,000 uniques a month and I was still confident that someone would soon call to offer me a role in the industry. Much to my surprise, my phone didn’t ring. In fact, no one contacted me through any means of communication with a job offer. Even the jobs I had applied to did not get back to me. Like millions of college graduates every year I was standing on the other side of an investment in my future worth tens of thousands of dollars with absolutely no leads in the industry I had spent nearly half a decade preparing to enter.
The first few post-college months are still a bit of a blur, but I know for a fact I wasn’t working in music. I had a few phone calls with companies, and even landed an interview with a label based out of Chicago with a reputation for ‘running the streets,’ but after being offered $25,000/year to move to one of the largest cities in America I knew my search was far from over. I still wrote, however, and that was the one constant I had in my life. I also had a series of horrible jobs, including a temporary role as a male secretary for a company specializing in products that were made for woodworking factories, as well as a holiday season spent as an assistant manager at Hot Topic. Both of those roles felt like a soul-draining, time eating hell, but I needed money and a flexible schedule in order to keep chasing my dream.
By the time I finally heard from an upstanding company who wanted me to work full time in music I had been out of college for nearly a year. The job was a 1000 miles from home, but it offered benefits and enough income to support myself, which was far more than what any other company had offered me up to that point. This includes when I foolishly sold my site, UTG, to the people at BuzzMedia (they never paid me at all, but that is a story for another time). My parents were cautiously optimistic, but they helped me get a car and gave me enough cash to stay afloat until my first paycheck came in. My friend Kate, a Boston native who lived 30 miles from my new gig, offered my her couch.
At this point in life I felt like I had finally made it. I thought I had found a company I could call home for years to come and that there was no reason to worry any longer about whether or not the music industry would welcome me into its elite club of full-time professionals. As it turns out, however, that assumption could not have been more misguided. Within six months of starting my new job the company hit financial troubles, which meant many employees were not paid on time. The business was technically a startup, which are notorious for experiencing temporary problems with funding, so at first I didn’t pay much mind to the fact my check came three days late. Then it happened again. And again. The fourth time these troubles arose during my first year they decided to furlow everyone, which is worse than not getting paid on time because it means the company doesn’t technically have to pay you the money they already owe.
You might be asking your monitor: Why would this guy stay at a job with so many ups and downs?
The answer is actually quite simple: It was still the music business.
Ever since the rise of Napster the one lesson engrained in the mind of every music business student is that times are rough and the industry is far more cutthroat now than ever before. As a result, myself and countless others have put up with companies treating us poorly because we felt it was some kind of twist ‘rite of passage that would separate the truly passionate from those looking for fame and/or fortune. I stayed with that first company for years despite knowing their almost constant money troubles, and the only reason I did that was because I thought those kinds of ups and downs were commonplace in a world where digital piracy was rampant, The truth, however, was that I was working for a failing business that did not know how to save their sinking ship even though they had accrued more than $30 million in funding over five years. They did not care about me as much as they did covering their own asses, but I did not realize that until the job I have now (here at Haulix) came around.
Once I entered negotiations with Matt Brown, the founder of Haulix, I knew something was different. Matt wasn’t obsessed with the bottom line, nor did he have an office far bigger than he would ever need. In fact, he had no real office at all. Haulix was a lean business from day one, putting all money into the product and spending as little as possible everywhere else. They didn’t even have a marketing person until I came on board, and knowing the industry average for such roles I can tell you they got me for a steal. I did not mind though, because money has never been a huge motivating factor for me. I was just happy to have a job with a company I not only knew very well inside and out, but also one I believe in. I believe in Haulix. I think what we’re doing is both necessary and incredibly important, which gives me a great sense of pride in everything I do. That is worth more than any annual salary elsewhere could afford, and it’s something I have probably told Matt I am grateful for more times than either of can count.
The reason I tell you all of this is because, like you, I was once confident the music industry would notice my talent and welcome me with open arms. As I grew older I realized the only way to get on the radar of anyone in the business is to take matters into your own hands, and even then there is no guarantee you will find the type position that you desire. Even if you do, it may take some time before the opportunity presents itself, and you can believe me when I say the wait for that time will feel like centuries. The key to making it through is a combination of drive, passion, and patience. You have to keep working, whether you are being paid or not, and you have to keep believing in yourself. When it feels like the world does not care and no one is listening, use the passion such an idea ignites in your soul to create something so compelling it demands the full attention of strangers. Whatever you do, just keep going. Keep fighting. Keep dreaming. Keep chasing the goals you have had since your teenage years until that fire inside you dies, and then move on to the next thing that captures your imagination. Just as sharks can never stop swimming without dying you cannot stop chasing your dreams without running the risk of living life unfulfilled. That, in my opinion, is a fate far worse than death.
Keep your head up, dreamers. You are not alone. To quote the band Vanna, “I believe in you if you believe in me.”
James Shotwell is the blog editor and social media coordinator for Haulix. He’s also the founder of Under The Gun Review and the host of the Inside Music podcast. His work has appeared on numerous websites and in several major publications, including Alternative Press, AbsolutePunk, and Rolling Stone. He tweets a lot, and would love it if you followed him on Twitter.
Hello, everyone! Welcome to the beginning of another week of music industry discussion and commentary here on the official blog of Haulix. It has been a few weeks since shared a Journalism Tips column, but we finally found a topic worth sharing and a fantastic professional writer to add their own flavor to the mix. Matthew Leimkuehler has contributed to this blog before, but this piece may be his best to date.
This blog exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
So, you’ve established yourself at a reputable publication. You’ve reviewed a fair amount of records, you’ve done some live reviews, you’ve interviewed the local bands, you’ve even shot a few photos. And now your time has finally come. One of your favorite bands is ramping up for a new record run and your editor just sent the email over saying you’re the lucky one from your publication who gets to interview the band before the album drops. It’s a “bucket list” interview for you, one of those artists you adored growing up — you’re nervous, you’re probably a shameful wreck. That’s okay. Take a deep breath and dive in. These people are human and you are, too. This is why you started writing about music in the first place, right? Here are three tips to consider when you prepare for the big interview:
1. Do your research
You want to do your best to make an impact during this interview. Stay away from redundant questions. Sure, it’s okay to break the ice with a generic question about the record or the recording process. But don’t stay on the surface for your allotted time. It’s your job to dig into this artist’s brain, to tell the world where his or her mindset is for this release. Read old interviews, watch old music videos, soak in every piece of media that has led up to this release. Don’t repeat questions that have been asked for a decade on end — find something you think needs to be talked about more and run with it.
2. Listen to the music
Make sure the artist’s representation gets you the proper assets before you’re heading into the interview. Get an advance of the new record, listen to the singles that have already been released. Don’t go into the interview blind (or, deaf?). The artist always knows. Listen intently and prepare questions about the record. This is new material for the artist, he or she should be excited to talk about the project and what they have created. But it always starts with you listening and preparing to ask the right questions.
3. Don’t be a “yes” man or woman.
It’s your job to tell a story, not to flatter the artist. It’s okay to be grateful and it’s okay to be complimentative if you like the music. This is an artist that probably has a world full of fans who preach his or hers greatness daily. If there’s something that’s questionable, don’t be afraid to hold the artist accountable. The last thing readers deserve is an extended arm of public relations. He or she pays people good money to make their new record sound good — it’s your job to deliver the truth. The artist will respect honesty over fake flattery any day. Stand your ground and enjoy every moment.
Have any questions? Feel free to tweet me @callinghomematt to discuss more!
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Haulix Blogger Spotlight series. We received your numerous requests for this column to appear more frequently, and through the coming month of October we will attempt to do just that. Today’s interview runs a little longer than most, but it’s definitely worth your time.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
I never get tired of meeting new writers with interesting stories to share. There may be well over a two-thousand music bloggers in existence today, and though we have spent over a year speaking with people in that realm we have barely scratched the surface as far as understanding life in music today is concerned. Today however, we get a bit closer thanks to an amazing conversation with the man known to most of the digital world as Johnny Ringo.
Brandon Ringo, the real world person behind the moniker Johnny Ringo, is a seasoned writing veteran with a wealth of experience already under his belt. He writes for New Noise Magazine and Nothing Original, as well as Amps And Green Screens. His online moniker is the result of a childhood memory involving a cast member from Duck Dynasty, but truth be told that’s a story best left for the interview. I wanted to feature Brandon for several months now, and just last week I finally got the opportunity to ask him every question I had ever thought of in regards to his career and where he sees himself in the future. His answers were, as expected, incredibly insightful. You can read our conversation below.
I’m not sure where Brandon will end up in the years ahead, but I know that as long as he keeps writing content that is on par with, if not better than what he’s been delivering in 2014 up to this point he will be able to write for anyone he desires in no time at all. Everyone, including myself, can learn something from his journey. If you have any additional questions or comments for Brandon, please post them at the end of this article.
H: Hello! I’m excited to begin and hope you are as well. Please take a moment and introduce yourself to our readers:
B: My name is Brandon Ringo, I’m 29 years old and I’m a writer for New Noise Magazine (http://newnoisemagazine.com/), which is available in both print and digital formats. I also do reviews for blogs like Nothing Original (http://nothingoriginal.net/) and Amps & Green Screens (http://ampsandgreenscreens.com/). In addition to writing, I work a full time job for “the man” helping out Small Business customers, which has turned out to be a lot more gratifying and fulfilling than it sounds. I also have an amazingly supportive, wonderful and patient wife named Amber and a one year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Charles Barkevious Ringo, who I have taught to bark the chorus to “Who Let The Dogs Out?”
H: It’s great to have you with us, Brandon. Though, we should say that some may also know you by the name Johnny Ringo. I guess that’s probably as good a place as any to start. What’s the story behind the nickname?
B: Wow, it’s kind of hilarious you ask that, actually. That nickname was given to me about 16 or 17 years ago by a man named Jason Robertson, who many know as Jase from the A&E show Duck Dynasty. My dad is good friends with the Robertson family and we went to their church for a while and Jason was my Sunday School teacher for a while. The first time he met me, he said “Johnny Ringo! Son, you know they wrote a song about you?” and as I stared back confused, he started singing the Lorne Green song “Ringo”. Eventually, when I started using Myspace and Facebook to promote local shows I was booking, I thought it’d be way more fun to use a nickname and it just kind of stuck. Also, it should be noted that my uncle once traced our family history and realized that we are in fact kin to the outlaw Johnny Ringo somewhere down the line and his death in Tombstone still makes me cry to this day.
H: Well I appreciate you telling me and for letting me call you by your real name. Let’s talk a bit about your history. What are your earliest memories of music?
B: Music has been all around me ever since I can remember. My dad has been a DJ at various radio stations since well before I was born and used to have a massive record collection and music was always playing in our house. As far as musical memories go though, it all really started with Steely Dan. The very first song I remember being my favorite was “Deacon Blues” at a very, very young age, which is kind of funny when you think about the song’s story. In addition to Steely Dan, I remember my dad playing a lot of Doors, Pink Floyd and Allman Brothers records when I was a kid, as well as stuff like ZZ Top, Deep Purple and Humble Pie. At one point, he was working at a pop station and a lot of that music rubbed off on me as well. Specifically, I remember being obsessed with the song “She Drives Me Crazy” by Fine Young Cannibals to the point that it was all I wanted to listen to until my tape magically disappeared, haha! As far as metal goes, I also remember the incredible waves of fear and awe that crept over me the first time I heard Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. It was loud and scary and I didn’t know how to process it entirely, but I knew I liked it. I also will never forget the time a guy in high school told me to listen to “Hammer Smashed Face” by Cannibal Corpse thinking it would scare me to death. Naturally it did, but I was more intrigued and excited about it and had to hear more!
H: Did you aspire to be involved in music from an early age, or did you have other passions when you were young? I know I wanted to be a scientist until a few pop punk albums changed my world.
B: Though I’ve always been obsessed with music, I wanted to be a football player when I grew up, honestly. That is until I actually started playing football in high school and realized it sucked. At that point music took on a substantially more important role and I was more excited about Metallica and Led Zeppelin than anything ever. I didn’t really start aspiring to have something more to do with music though until I graduated from high school and started getting a lot more involved in my local scene.
H: What was the first album you purchased with your own money? Format?
B: It was Oasis’ (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? on cassette tape. A friend of mine had the cd and played it enough to where I became obsessed with hearing more of it and bought it as soon as I could! Also, a few years later, I had just got into collecting cd’s when one of my neighbors lost her cat and was offering a reward for it. Well, somehow the cat had snuck into my house and nobody noticed, so when I found her and brought her back over, she gave me some money and I promptly spent it on Jimi Hendrix – Live At Woodstock and felt like a king!
H: Do you remember the first artist you saw in concert? Bonus points if you share an early ‘fan boy’ story of sorts.
B: This story is always kind of embarrassing, honestly. My mom used to work at this TV station in Florida that would give away tickets to concerts at this big amphitheatre in town. One time, she won tickets to a Celine Dion concert and I decided to tag along and it was one of the weirdest experiences ever! A few years later after moving to Louisiana, my aunt took me to my first “metal” concert, which was Ratt, Warrant, Dokken, LA Guns and Firehouse, which was awesome! Not only did I see my first pair of rock concert boobs (unfortunately they were from an overweight older lady), I caught my first pick ever from the guitarist of Dokken! Both were equally as important however, because one taught me to appreciate the art of live performance and the other taught me that rock/metal shows were 100% my favorite thing in the world.
H: Going back to something we discussed a minute ago, was there ever a ‘lightbulb moment’ in your life that let you know music would play a major role in your life? You know, as something more than a hobby?
B: It was the first time I went to a local show, actually. A friend of mine invited me to see his pop punk band Lot 27 play at this coffee house in town and it was the first time I really saw underground music played live. It was one of those things that I didn’t really get at the time, but I knew it was special and interesting and from then on, I went to as many local shows as I could. Eventually, I got involved in the scene enough that I decided to start booking shows of my own and it was from there that I began to truly fall in love with all of the facets of the music industry. I remember always getting as much thrill out of the chase-and-catch of emailing booking agents to put shows together as I did the actual shows themselves. Although to be honest, dealing with publicists is WAY easier than dealing with booking agents since there aren’t huge guarantees on the line!
H: One of the topics we’re most often asked to discuss is whether or not aspiring industry professionals should pursue higher education. Some believe it helps get a leg up in the business world, while others believe it’s better to try and make your own path and learn along the way. Where do you stand on this topic?
B: I personally feel that both methods are incredibly effective. Getting a degree is obviously something that looks incredible on a resume and you can definitely learn a lot. It also increases your earning potential and can help gain a lot more contacts. However, I also believe that it isn’t worthwhile going preposterously in debt unless you know for a fact that you’re going to get something to show for it and the career field you’re going into is something you will be happy devoting your life to. Personally, I went to a community college to get an IT-centered degree and figured I would be chained to that sort of thing as my future career. As these things happen though, I took an English class with a teacher who told me I had a knack for creative writing and encouraged me to pursue it more. I didn’t really believe her, but I decided to try it, so I started a blog and began writing reviews of new albums that I thought were pretty cool. I think that it’s definitely been more gratifying learning as I go, rather than being taught exactly what to do. It makes it easier to inject my personality and write from the heart, rather than feeling pressured to do things a certain way because I spent $100,000 to learn how to do it, you know?
H: You’ve written for a number of entertainment publications over the years, but what was the first site or zine to give you an opportunity to write about music? Please tell us about that initial experience and the work you did.
B: My first real forays into writing about music seriously were these crappy WordPress and Blogspot blogs I started in college. My first REAL opportunity though, came from Hails & Horns Magazine. It was this magazine that was sort of the heavy metal spin-off of AMP Magazine, which was more well-known for covering punk and hardcore at the time. One day they posted an email address on Facebook to contact them about something and I decided to take a chance and inquire about contributing. Sure enough, a couple of days later a wonderful man named Tony Shrum wrote me back and told me they would be down and had me contact their editor Lisa Root. After a few days, she replied back and said she would be glad to let me contribute and the rest is history. Also, I’d like to say that Lisa and Tony are both with New Noise Magazine now and are maybe my favorite people ever. They have seriously spoiled me and made this whole experience a lot easier and more fun than I ever thought was possible.
H: Do you remember your first album review and/or interview?
B: I honestly can’t remember what albums I first started reviewing. I do remember my first interviews like they were yesterday though! My first big one for Hails & Horns was an emailer with Jacob Bannon of Converge, which was a dream come true and a half. The truly scary/amazing thing though, is that my first ever phone interview was with Steve Harris of Iron Maiden to promote his upcoming solo record. Up until that week, I didn’t even know any of the logistics of how to record a phone interview or how to do the questions or anything, really. The scariest part was when his manager came on and said “Brandon, you’re on the phone with Steve Harris”. I almost had a heart attack! Amazingly though, it went supremely well and no interview since then has had me as nervous, because Steve Harris basically invented heavy metal, so if he didn’t hate me nobody else would be allowed to, haha!
H: This is more for fun than anything else, but have you ever thought to take some time and revisit those earlier works? Sometimes I cringe thinking about the way I probably wrote when I was just starting out.
B: Honestly, I will go back and read old interviews and reviews every once in a while, but for the most part I try to avoid it. I guess because it can be a tad embarrassing. There have been occasions though, where I’ve been lost on question ideas and gone back and found interviews in the past with questions that worked really well and tried to incorporate those and they’ve worked wonders.
H: You’re currently located in Louisiana, which is not exactly the first place people think of when imagining the homes of music journalists. What can you tell us about the music scene where you live? I know you also lived in Florida at one point, so if you’re able to compare the two areas we’d love to hear it:
B: It really is a huge surprise to me that there aren’t more writers/journalists in this state. Though it certainly isn’t the best place to live in terms of politics and skin-seering humidity, it’s a musical treasure trove, especially in New Orleans. As far as my town’s scene goes, it’s kind of hit or miss. There are a lot of interesting and enjoyable local bands in town like The Vidrines, Prestor Jon, Mailbomber and The Flying Humanoids. But I don’t get out to a lot of local shows as much as I used to though because I don’t drink anymore and a lot of my friends have moved away, so it’s not as fun as it once was. As far as Florida goes, when I lived there I was way too young to ever go to any local shows, unfortunately. What made this more depressing was when I read the book Extremity Retained which mentions multiple mind-numbingly brutal shows with bands like Cannibal Corpse, Immolation and Malevolent Creation going on in the town I lived in during that same timeframe. A few years ago though, I did actually get to see a show in Florida while visiting my mom. In fact, the headliner was Sky Eats Airplane, this band that went on to be kind of big. The funny part about it though, is that the openers were all super lame and I ended up getting bored and leaving when one of them did an emo version of “Hey Jealousy” by Gin Blossoms.
H: I don’t personally think geographic location matters as much today as it did twenty years ago, but some think everything cool only happens in LA and NYC. Do you travel a lot for coverage, or do you wait for tours and artists to come through your area?
B: The good thing about my location is that I’m 3-5 hours from Dallas, New Orleans and Little Rock, so plenty of cool stuff is at my disposal. Unfortunately, I don’t get to travel as often as I’d like, so it has to be something super big and worth the trip and expenses. Also, when I go to that stuff, I don’t feel like working, so I just buy my ticket and enjoy it like it’s more of a vacation of sorts. Every once in a while, bands worth covering like Helmet and The Sword have come to my town, which rules, but that stuff is few and far between.
H: I’d like to talk about your work conducting interviews, if only because that is how I first came across your work. You’ve done many interviews of the past several years, perhaps more than any other type of featured content. Is there anything about this type of article that holds your interest more than, say, album reviews?
B: The funny part about this is that I never intended on doing interviews. When I first started, I was mostly into reviews and lists and stuff and interviews didn’t seem like a thing I would be good at, so I didn’t worry with them. Eventually though, I wanted to help promote my friend’s bands, so I started doing email interviews and truly fell in love with the process. Once I started writing for Hails & Horns and then New Noise however, interviews became substantially more important. At first it was the thrill of talking with bands that I really liked, but eventually it turned into a genuine fascination with the songwriting process and how different it is for each artist. I still like doing reviews, but it feels weird sometimes because I know that you don’t need to read my review to decide if you’re going to like a record or not. Whereas with interviews I get to tell the artist’s story and really discuss the thought process behind the record, which is substantially more interesting.
H: Do you have a favorite interview? We’d love to hear a story about your most memorable interview experience.
B: There are quite a few that I would consider favorites, but for different reasons. In fact, last night I had one of my favorite overall conversations ever with Steve Austin of Today Is The Day. It was super insightful and definitely the most personal and heartfelt conversation I’ve had with a musician thus far and left me sort of shaken. The one I’m most proud of was Rob Zombie though. It was one of those that started out with boring, generic answers, but after three or four questions I could feel a switch flip and he got comfortable and the answers got progressively better and better! Another memorable one for me was the time I got to interview Oderus Urungus (R.I.P.) of Gwar and he was more interested in talking about drinking dog piss than discussing music!
H: Do you have a method or routine you follow when working on interviews? If so, what is it?
B: My process has evolved quite a bit as I’ve gotten more experienced, but two things have always remained the same and will never change. When the request is first approved, I begin obsessively listening to the band’s new record and their past discography and jotting down the stuff that immediately pops into my head. As the interview gets scheduled and gets closer, I start repeatedly asking myself “Okay, what do you REALLLLY want to know most about this person?” At that point, it all depends on if it’s being done by email or phone. If I’m doing by email, I get a list of 5-10 “skeleton questions” and kind of mold them into real questions. I used to do the same thing for phoners, but now I just leave the topics in their skeletal form to avoid asking robotic-sounding questions and use them more as topic suggestions, basically.
H: What advice would you offer to aspiring writers and future industry professionals who may be reading this about making it in the music business today?
B: Unfortunately, success in the music industry is something that boils down to 50% hard work, 30% good luck and 20% knowing the right people. My best advice is to realize this up front and only get into the business if you are truly obsessed with your field, because most music industry jobs are incredibly thankless. As a writer, the most important thing to remember is that monetarily speaking, you’ll never get out of it what you put in, so dedication to the craft has to be your main motivation. If you are truly motivated by and obsessed with music all of your hard work will still be rewarded, but the reward comes in other forms. For me, it comes in the form of getting new music early, landing interviews with people I love and respect, as well as the catharsis that comes from finding the perfect wording for a piece and finishing the piece in general. I know there’s better advice I could give, but understanding exactly what you’re getting yourself into ahead of time and deciding from there if it’s worth your time is the best thing any budding professional should know.
H: We should note that you are not a full time writer at this point. You freelance for many publications, but you also have another job on the side. Would you ideally like to write full time, or are you happy with where you’re at right now? I know many don’t want to be full time writers because there is very little job security with those roles.
B: When I first started writing for Hails & Horns, I was really sick of my day job and all I wanted was to write full time because it was more fun and interesting. Now though, I’m really happy with where I’m at with my day job and writing has taken its natural place as simply a creative outlet/hobby that I GET to do. I think if it turned in to something I HAD to do, it would probably get boring as well. It’s just so nice to take a break or lunch and start working on interview questions or an article or review or something, because it truly provides a nice break for my brain to think about fun things for a little bit.
H: You’ve used many digital distribution platforms to preview and review music over the years. Which services do you prefer and why?
B: Though I have used a lot of different sites, I’ll still never forget the first time I was sent a link from Haulix, honestly. I just really loved being able to read the press release and stream/download music all in the same place without having to download huge pdf files and stuff like that. I’m also a big fan of this site called promojukebox.com which also has great functionality, plus I can actually use it on my phone, which is very cool.
H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
B: I truly don’t think there’s a lot I would change about the music industry. Though it sucks that musicians aren’t able to make money the way they used to, it truly separates the cream of the crop nowadays. Before, labels would throw fistfuls of dollars at any trend they could find, whereas now bands have to work harder and put more effort into being creative and interesting and they have to tour their asses off and truly bleed for their art. Thus, if you’re not truly committed and obsessed with your craft, you’re better off becoming a doctor or lawyer, because they are way better ways of earning money. One thing I would actually change though, is I would do away with Clear Channel. As someone who enjoys occasionally listening to the radio on the way to or from work, or even as the little kid who would sit glued to the radio ready to record songs I loved for mix tapes, Clear Channel has completely shattered that experience in many ways. I’m not going to go off on a huge rant, but I truly believe they have had a massive hand in the music industry’s apocalypse. Also, as far as downloading music is concerned, I think it’s fantastic that bands and labels have finally learned to embrace that technology and learned how to use it to their advantage rather than running away from it with their tails between their legs and blaming it for all of their problems.
H: What are your biggest goals as far as writing is concerned, and what stands in the way of you achieving them?
B: My goals as a writer seem to be changing every day, honestly. When I first started doing it, I told myself that I was only in it for the new records and anything else was gravy. At this very point in time though, I have three specific goals. The first is to interview a member of Metallica, my favorite band of all time. The second is to interview Lemmy of Motörhead. The third would be to interview Donald Fagen and/or Walter Becker of Steely Dan. The only thing standing in the way of Lemmy and/or Metallica is just finding the right opportunity at this point. Eventually, a time will come up when those are feasible, but it’s just a matter of being patient. As far as Steely Dan goes, there are a few obstacles. Specifically, the sites/magazines I contribute to don’t really fit the mold of a publication that they would normally be covered by, so that is a big one. The other obstacle would just be finding the right time/reason/opportunity like with anything.
H: Where do you see yourself in five years?
B: I honestly don’t know. With the way the world is right now, there’s literally no telling. My only true goal in life is to be happy and make others happy when I can. As long as I have my wife, my puppy and my record collection, I think I’ll be good! To give you a better answer though, I’d really like to be in a higher-up position at work and I’d really like to still be contributing stories for the print version of New Noise. It would also be rad if I was also able to contribute stuff for Decibel Magazine, my favorite magazine of all time! Oh and if I landed that Steely Dan interview, that’d be pretty cool as well.
H: Okay, I think that covers everything. Before I let you go, are there any final thoughts or observations that you would like to share with our readers?
B: Kind of going back to advice I would give to writers, I would just like to say that the most important thing any writer can do is learning to consistently finish what you start. For some reason, I have had difficulties with this in the past, but it really is incredibly important to your personal/professional growth to learn how to create an idea and see it all the way through to its completion. If a piece or project or something seems like it’s getting the best of you, let that motivate you to work harder to finish it instead of letting that scare you off, because in the end you’re only making yourself better for finishing it and turning it in.
Hello, everyone! Our Journalism Tips series has been moving around a lot in recent weeks, but today it is back once again to help strengthen the music blogging community. This entry was created in response to an email received late last week, which we detail at length below. If you have ever had troubles maintaining a good team of contributors, this post may be for you.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
The old saying “good help is hard to find these days” never seems to go out of style. When applied to the world of blogging, I believe the phrase should be altered slightly to include the words “especially when there is not pay involved.” 90% of music blogs, if not more, are maintained by people who see little to no financial return for their efforts. The people who contribute to sites they do not own have an even higher likelihood of not getting paid, which is something that puts many blog owners in a very tough position. Editors want to motivate their team members, but when they have nothing to offer them except momentary attention from the internet and a few extra lines on a resume that can be incredibly difficult to accomplish. Everyone wants to believe that people get into music because they are passionate about art and promoting the artistic creations of others, but people also need to make a living, and there comes a point where that need begins to outweigh whatever desires one may have to pursue unpaid work.
The reason I tell you all this is because of a message I received just last week. A letter came in from a site owner seeking advice about letting go of a longtime contributor who was incredibly talented, but had in recent months become increasingly inactive. The individual in question would not participate in development chats, never offered to help others, and saw no problem in using the access the site had given them to pitch bigger outlets for paid work. The most recent example of this occurred when the writer asked the editor for credentials to a fest, which were granted. The editor was informed after notifying the contributor of their access that the contributor had taken their acceptance message and used it to get a paid writing gig from a bigger, more recognizable outlet. The contributor swore the editor’s site would still be the focus of their efforts, but when the event happened the contributor did their paid work and turned it in days before delivering a single message to the site that had originally granted them credentials to the event. In the mind of the editor, this was the final straw.
Having spent the past half decade running an entertainment news blog of my own, my immediate reaction to this message was to take the side of the editor. After all, it’s only because of their site that the contributor was able to gain access to the event, and even after confronting the person in question they were told something that was, in fact, a lie. The editor has every reason to feel betrayed, and if they feel they can no longer trust the contributor then they should definitely part ways as soon as possible. You have to follow your heart in these matters. Always.
That said, after my knee-jerk reaction subsided I began to sympathize with the contributor. It’s true they betrayed the site they signed up to help and there is no way around that, but if all their efforts in journalism up to this point have been to secure paying gigs then they must leap at whatever opportunities come their way. More importantly, an editor who is unable to pay their contributing staff must realize that if their team is talented they will eventually want to progress in their professional careers. Otherwise, why would they be contributing in the first place?
Any blog owner and/or editor who runs a site that does not pay its contributors needs to realize their publication is, at best a launching pad to bigger and better things within the music industry. Your site(s) may be great and they bring in a ton of traffic, but unless you have the finances needed to pay your team they will eventually need to move on to other outlets who are capable of better supporting their efforts. This is not a bad thing as much as it is a fact of life, and any site owner who does not understand that is only doing a disservice to themselves. The fact your staff may one day leave should be all the motivation you need to work towards finding ways to turn your writing efforts into a sustainable business. Countless magazines have come and gone in the last hundred years, and many more will do the same in the century ahead. There is no reason your site cannot be a profitable outlet, but until that time comes you need to realize that not every person needs your site the way you, the owner/editor, does. They can and will find other outlets, paid or not. The best you can do is support your team and work alongside them to promote a better, more financially beneficial future to anyone involved.
I’m not saying that blog owners and editors need to keep everyone, nor am I saying that it’s okay to slack off. Every contributor has deadlines and every deadline should be met, but editors need to be consciously aware of the fact that contributors have personal journeys they are on as well. They are people are with dreams and aspirations that extend beyond making your blog the next Rolling Stone, but for the time being they are willing to help chase your dreams as long as they can pursue theirs as well. If you support one another, both will succeed. If you do not communicate, or if you fail to understand the other’s point of view, everyone will struggle to get ahead.
Why, hello there. We are beyond thrilled to learn you have chosen to spend a few minutes of your day with us. Today’s post is a guest blog from the one and only Emily Katter, an up and coming songwriters with talent needed to be the next big thing. The subject is songwriting, and we hope those of you currently learning how to write hooks join the conversation.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Songwriting is so much more than just creating a song. It’s an outlet (for the writer, performer AND the listener), it’s therapy, a de-stressor, it’s a tool to help make sense of a situation or something going on emotionally or physically, it’s a release.
As a songwriter myself, I have had many different experiences with the art form. I find that sometimes thoughts pour out of me so easily that I can’t keep up. Sometimes melodies just come into my head out of nowhere, or I come up with a concept when I’m in the middle of a yoga class and can’t write it down. Other times it’s a complete struggle to think of ideas, as if my mind goes blank. I can’t seem to find the words that I want to express or I struggle for a melody that fits. It’s not always easy, but I can confidently say that every time I write a song it is a completely new adventure, which is what brings me back.
In my experience, songwriting is most helpful to my life when I’m going through something personal that I want to work out. This is also when the ideas flow the most. For instance, my recently released single stemmed from a personal situation. ‘Comfortable’ is about being in a long-term relationship and getting to a point where you don’t really know if you are still “in love,” or if it is just being comfortable that keeps you together. It’s about trying to keep that spark alive when it’s covered up by familiarity. This is a topic that I had struggled with in my own my relationship with my boyfriend, and the co-writer of the song had also been through the exact same situation. Needless to say, this song kind of wrote itself since we were both so connected to the topic and the emotion behind it. I think writing the song helped us to both realize that this is something that everyone deals with at some point in their relationship. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence that we both got engaged to the person we had been writing this about within three months of writing this song, or if this song helped us to move forward and make changes that we needed to make in our relationship.
I find that like “Comfortable,” my best songs come from being personally connected to a concept. I’ve even used songwriting to deal with struggles in my music career, getting rejected or feeling insufficient or like an outsider. These songs have always turned into powerful, uplifting ballads that are about rising above whatever is trying to push me down. Songwriting helps me to get my feelings out in a positive way, and then share them with people so that it will help them to overcome negative situations in their life.
This is still the beginning of my songwriting journey and I hope that it continues to be a therapeutic and rewarding outlet for me. I hope that I will continue to relate to my fans through my songs and empower them.
Emily Katter is fast becoming one of the most talked about female songwriters in the country. We believe in her music, and something tell us you will too. If you would like to learn more about her efforts in total music domination, please follow Emily on Twitter.
Thank you for joining us for another installment in our our ongoing Journalism Tips series. We started this column as a way to help aspiring writers get their start in music, but over the couple months we have been evolving into a place writers come to have their questions about life in the business answered. Today we are continuing that effort with a response to a question posed by multiple readers in regard to how writers can make the most of festival coverage when seemingly everyone who calls themselves press is granted access. If you have any questions about developing as a writer/blogger in music, please do not hesitate email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Ahhh. The ever-so formidable task of mastering festival coverage. It’s not easy, running around like a chicken with your head cut off for 12-18 hours on end — making sure every must-see band has been seen, every must-shake hand has been touched and every must-interview act has been chatted with. Not only must you balance every minute of your time and energy, but you must focus that energy to make sure you are creating better content than every other writer on the scene. What does it take for you to stand out during this festival season? Here are five questions I ask myself when going into all types of festivals:
1. What story hasn’t been told before?
Every blog, ‘zine and YouTube account is going to give you the typical, “Must See” lists for festivals, and this is okay. It’s cool to give your thoughts on what the standout acts are. But why not push this idea further? Instead of the “Five Must-See Acts at the Vans Warped Tour,” why not the “Five Songs to Crowd Surf to at the Vans Warped Tour?” Centralize your ideas — make your thoughts unique and insightful. This doesn’t need to pertain to solely preview content — think about different angles for every aspect of the festival.
2. What questions haven’t been asked yet?
If you’re interviewing a band on a festival bill, odds are the act is going through an extreme press run. Don’t waste the band’s time with monotonous questions the likes of “where did you get your band name?” or “how did you all meet?” Goodness, what a waste of time. You [probably] have a smartphone…Google different interviews, visit Wikipedia, or at least read the band’s bio before stepping into the box. Dig into insightful conversation with the musician and you all might actually learn something from one another. And better yet — the artist might actually want to work with you again in the future. A good musician always knows when you’re skidding through an interview and it is a bad reflection on everyone involved. Always do your homework. Don’t be afraid to step away from even insightful and traditional interviews to have a little fun with the artists. Does the band want to talk about the best food to eat on the road? Great! Grab that opportunity and create the best damn “must eat places according to this band” piece possible.
3. What can I do to stay ahead?
Okay: you’ve done amazing preview pieces, you’ve locked in the best interviews, you’ve relentlessly prepared for those interviews and you’ve just landed at the festival. What now? Staying ahead and in your element is tough. Typically, festivals offer the best distractions possible. Food, booze, after parties and sideshows are all fantastic for fans, but you’re at this festival for generate content. Stay in communication with your publicists or tour manager. Embrace the notion of being a public figure. Live tweet sets and daily agendas, reach out to other professionals you know will be in attendance and do you best to not make an ass of yourself (it happens to everyone at least once). Do daily write-ups and reviews of what you’re experiencing at the festival to give the outside world an idea of what’s taking place. Make the most of every second. Stay focused and make great impressions but don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the fantastic music you’re getting to cover.
4. How do I sum it all up?
Congratulations, you killed your interviews and you made it home safely. Now, time for post-festival coverage. Again – tailor to your audience and strive to be unique in your post-festival coverage. Everyone will have a photo gallery and everyone will have the “best of” lists going live. Try to step back and think about the bigger picture. What really was the best part of the festival? Embrace the entire community you were apart of, not just the music. At this point of your coverage, more than ever, it’s time to be a journalist and tell a story.
5. What about next time?
Be sure to send the required follow up message upon returning home and be timely in turning your interviews around. Never take on too many interviews or you’ll dilute your product and slow down the process. Five well-thought out interviews stand out against fifteen half-hearted interviews any day. Make sure all of the appropriate parties know you are turning your content around in a timely fashion and thank them for the opportunity. Always be humble.
Want to chat more about killer festival coverage? Tweet me @callinghomematt!
Thank you for joining us for another installment in our our ongoing Journalism Tips series. We started this column as a way to help aspiring writers get their start in music, but over the couple months we have been evolving into a place writers come to have their questions about life in the business answered. Today we are continuing that effort with a response to a question posed by multiple readers in regard to how writers can better themselves professionally. If you have any questions about developing as a writer/blogger in music, please do not hesitate email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Last week, we spent the entirety of our Journalism Tips column discussing three major ways music writers annoy publicists. The reaction to that post was so strong that we decided to run another, and if your response remains strong a third is not out of the question. The purpose of these lists is not to make journalists feel bad, but rather to highlight aspects of the way we all do business that could stand to be improved. Whether or not someone takes it upon ourselves to make changes is entirely up to the individual reading this article, but at least we can rest knowing you are more aware of the common mistakes so many of us make.
Without further ado, here are 3 MORE ways music writers drive publicists crazy:
1. Requesting event coverage within 72 hours of the event.
Music writers, especially those new to the industry, tend to get so caught up in the day-to-day events of the music business that they often forget to plan future coverage far enough in advance to guarantee they actually receive the accreditation they seek. Instead, they wait for an email or Twitter reminder to inform them of events happening in the immediate future and turn to publicists for last minute access, which in turn forces the publicist(s) to drop whatever they are working on to try and get an answer to a question they most likely should not even ask this late in the game.
No one believes bloggers and other music writers are lying when they claim to have very little free time for future planning, but it’s incredibly rude for writers to assume everyone else exists to help them whenever they find the time to put in a request. I am willing to go out on a limb and say every single person working full time in publicity today is far more busy than any single writer or blogger could ever pretend to be, and the fact anyone who isn’t Rolling Stone or Pitchfork is ever granted passes for a show, let alone access to artists, is a testament to just how hard PR people work on a daily basis. In order for them to perform to the best of their ability, however, they need writers they can depend on, specifically those who recognize their struggle and make an effort to place coverage requests in a more timely manner. If you can be that person for the publicists in your life, they will do what they can to make things better/easier for you. Remember: Everyone advances faster when we work together, and in order to do that we must respect one another’s role in this industry.
2. Delaying exclusive content to the point it must be given to another outlet, then turning around and complaining about losing the exclusive.
This one is a little more specific than some of the other grievances we have shared, but it’s something I see happen on a near-weekly basis, typically in cases involving smaller/unsigned/indie bands. Sites looking to boost the number of features they’re able to run agree to do an exclusive with a relatively unknown band who somehow managed to land decent representation, and in the time between that agreement and the negotiated launch date a plethora of additional, likely bigger opportunities arrive that cause the exclusive to be shelved or postponed. This may seem like no big deal to the writer, as they believe good content will perform well no matter what day it runs, but for publicists who have planned a specific promotional push for content expected to launch on a specific date it can be one of the most aggravating experiences they have face in their career. They have clients they want to make happy, and more importantly those clients have fans they want to make happy, but that cannot happen unless you hold up your end of the agreement as a writer and run the content on time. If you fail to do this and notice you exclusive appearing on another site, the only person you have to blame is yourself. Never blame publicists for your own lack of professionalism.
3. Sharing pre-release music/media with people other than the intended recipient
You had to know this point was going to be made eventually, right? Haulix specializes in digital distribution and fighting music piracy, which is a long way of saying we work with a number of record labels and publicists around the globe every day. When these professionals want to share unreleased/advance music with members of the press they upload and watermark the music using our system, then distribute those material to select members of the global writing community. By ‘select members,’ I mean to say they go through their entire contact list and select the individual people they want to stream, download, and otherwise engage with their content prior to it being made available for public consumption. What they do not intend to do in these instances, however, is share watermarked advanced music with someone who then turns around and shares that same music with the ten-thirty people they have writing for their music blog. This is not only breaking one of the very few stipulations agreed to by the writer when accepting the media files, but also dramatically increases the likelihood of music leaking.
Listen, we get it. We understand it’s incredibly simple to receive an email inviting you to something and then forward it to others you believe you can trust so that they too may enjoy whatever advance you have just received, but it’s also incredibly stupid. For starters, just because someone contributes to your blog does not necessarily mean they can be trusted with unreleased music. If they receive music from you and it leaks, they will not be held responsible. You, however, will be held fully accountable for the leak and may even face criminal prosecution as a result.
You know what is just as easy as forwarding advanced music to people who are not supposed to have it? Emailing a publicist or record label and requesting that a second copy of the record be sent to whoever on your site is covering the album/artist in the near future. This not only protects you, but it also allows the publicist to better track who has access to music and what type of coverage they are planning to create. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Thank you for joining us for another installment in our our ongoing Journalism Tips series. We started this column as a way to help aspiring writers get their start in music, but over the couple months we have been evolving into a place writers come to have their questions about life in the business answered. Today we are continuing that effort with a response to a question posed by multiple reader in regards to how aspiring writers can make the most of their summer vacation. If you have any questions about developing as a writer/blogger in music, please do not hesitate email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Many of our readers are wrapping up another year of school this month or next, and if they’re fortunate enough to not absolutely have to find work right away their are several weeks of childlike freedom ahead. It’s an exciting time to be young, and for the young it’s an important time to be thinking about the future. Advertisers will tell you to embrace the now or otherwise live in the present, but if you want to make a career for yourself in the music business you should see the arrival of summer vacation as a door to opportunity that only needs your drive and passion to be kicked wide open. I cannot tell you exactly what you need to do in order to make yourself noticed by the industry at large, but by following the follows tips you will position yourself for success down the line. Making the most of that positioning and networking with the people you meet through those efforts is entirely up to you.
Make a list of achievable goals and set dates for each task to be accomplished.
There is no real limit to what you can accomplish this summer, but if you do not have an idea of what you are trying to achieve from the start you are bound to spend days, if not weeks spinning your wheels with indecision. If you want to be a writer, this means setting goals for the amount of content created, as well as the dates that you plan to have certain festival/tour coverage complete. For example, those who plan to attend Vans Warped Tour on July 1 could set a goal to have all interviews and related live coverage published within 10 days of the event.
Find an internship.
The is no overstating the profound impact a great internship can have on your career trajectory. These internships does not have to be directly related to journalism, but it should be in an area of the music industry that interests you. After all, there is always a chance you will not ultimately become a music writer. Internships offer you an opportunity to explore other areas of music, such as publicity and digital marketing, where many of the skills used for writing can be leveraged. This not only gives you more options for your post education career, but it also provides you with a more well rounded understanding of how the industry functions.
Use Festival Coverage To Refine Your Voice
Summer music writing is synonymous with festival coverage, and in 2014 it’s hard to go more than 3 or 4 days without a major music event kicking off somewhere across the continental United States. Many of these festivals feature similar lineups, which will no doubt result in redundant coverage from blogs and magazines who were granted press badges just so they could spend their mornings summarizing the same set lists and performances delivered by at every festival that came before through a handful of hit-or-miss pictures and interviews. We will probably never reach a point where this type of coverage is not commonplace, but that does not mean that it’s the type of content you have to create in order to make an impact at these events. In fact, the content that typically gets the most attention are the articles that find a way to be unique in a sea of commonality. Summarize set lists and complete interviews if you must, but take the time to soak in the festival environment and convey it to your readers through editorial efforts. Write about what you saw, felt, smelled, tasted, touched, thought, and experienced. Tell them what it was like for you specifically, and don’t be afraid to tell the truth. If the festival was crowded or the sound was terrible go ahead and let the world know. Likewise, if something surprises you in a good way, even small things, highlight them as well. Every event has pros and cons. Don’t gloss over the experience.
Challenge yourself to write about something different
Writers, like musicians, have a bad habit of getting overly comfortable with material that works and hesitating whenever the idea of trying something new is presented. While there may always be a place in this world for someone who is the most well versed individual on one particular topic, the growing trend in entertainment writing is sites and magazines recruiting people who are well versed on a variety of topics. If you’re into music, that means being able to write about an up and coming country act with the same sincerity and intelligent voice as you would the next big pop punk outfit. It could also mean doing video interviews and writing album reviews, or otherwise switching the type of media you are creating while still speaking in an intelligent and welcoming voice. This summer, challenge yourself to step outside your professional comfort zone and surround yourself with material that will make you actually work. Find events and/or albums that require research, thought, and time to properly analyze, then go out and create that content. Buy a camera and take photos at every event you write a live review for instead of bringing along a photographer. Start a podcast. Interview a rapper. Whatever it is you have always thought you would never do, now is the time to toss care to the wind and give the unknown an honest attempt. You never know what you might learn about yourself.
Network. Network. Network.
No matter where you go or what you choose to write about this summer, you need to make it a point to introduce yourself to everyone you can and be as nice as humanly possible. You should also work on printing business cards as soon as possible, even if you have no real business to promote. You’re promoting yourself at these events, even if you feel like you’re only there to see a show. You’re not. In reality, especially at festivals, you’re representing your personal brand to every concert attendee, artist, manager, and industry professional who happens to be on site. Holding doors and buying drinks for the right people may open more doors than any well written article, and all it takes is putting others before yourself. Ask people who they are and what they do, but also do not be afraid to share your current activities and goals. Tell them what you are working towards and who knows? They may be able to help.
Build an online portfolio and remember to keep it updated
The internet has made it incredibly simple for people with an interest in writing to begin sharing their content with the world without spending anything at all beyond the basic cost of internet (which might not be a factor in places with free public wifi). Writers love free platforms and free promotion, but if you want to properly represent yourself online it’s worth finding $100 to spend on a custom domain and site hosting fees. Companies like Squarespace and Wix make it incredibly easy to build high quality websites in no time at all, and if you know the right phrases to Google you can often find offer codes to make those reasonably priced services even more affordable. There is a myth amongst writers in the digital age that if they take time off from creating content they will slip into the realm of forgotten people simply because the demand for new material is so high, but it is incredibly important that writers set aside time to carve out their own, professionally-focused corner of the internet. You need a place where people who are interested in working with you can find links to your work, as well as a resume, bio, contact information, and whatever else you feel obliged to share about yourself with the world. If you want an example, click here to see the portfolio of yours truly (Haulix James).
Whatever this summer, remember this: No one notices the aspiring professional who keeps to themselves and does the same thing every day. The people who makes big moves in this industry find the strength and courage within to make a change long before anyone else ever takes notice. Make this summer the time when you take life by the reigns and begin to truly leave your mark on this industry. The world is yours.
