Acting As A Support Act! - A Guest Post By Tommy Morriello (Crash Bang Management)
Touring... the most desirable word in the musicians dictionary... but...
I am talking here about the touring reality as a support band, playing for a crowd that really doesn't care about you.
Let's jump over that phase where you are in your garage, discussing the name of the band with your friends and what instrument each of you shall play. Let's assume that you already have a record out, that it has been released by a label and you even got a HUGE advance from them allowing you to buy 200 T-shirts to sell it on a tour.
Let's assume as well that you have a regular job, because making money even for a signed band is as hard as starting from scratch - with the only difference that someone else is trying to make money out of you.
Furthermore you have to take into consideration that unlikely the 80's where even a lousy demo-tape was at that time a huge achievement to any band. Nowadays having a fully produced album makes you no more special than Mr. Jingles (my cat).
Beside your friends parents nobody really cares if you have an album out. To make a difference, without putting all your cards on pure luck or, god forbid, talent! You will have to realize that the music business is made of personal relations in all levels. (Like that guy from the club that always let you in for free. You see, this goes on all levels and all doors).
There is much more work and much more people needed than you can imagine just to make a band look a bit professional. It will take some skillful marketing, planning and people taking a huge financial risk just to start things to happen. Even having all of that, the chance that all of this will never succeed is way lower than 1% just that you know.
So we learned until now that putting a band together and renting a van (because you have a day job to pay for it) does not qualify you as a touring artist. Not even a record deal does so!
If you are already a local headliner you might want to take the chance to go as a support for a bigger act. You might not get paid, maybe you will have even to contribute to share the nightliner, but in this way you have an absolute unique chance to understand and learn how a touring band works. Remember this is very hard to get so if you get this opportunity don't waste it by drinking yourself to death after your set, instead go and watch the headliner preparing and playing, they are doing this for a long time and there is always something useful you can learn. (I still learn a lot when I am on the road).
Many headliners are a bit hard to handle, in other words they are a bunch of douches. Don't ever take this personal. Think at that as a minor setback if compared to the big picture, at least you are on the road living the "dream" which not many people will ever have the chance to experience. Anyhow, if you land a support slot, use this in your favour, by taking photos and writing about that, on your social media profile (yes facebook and all that shit...) it will increase your "local" clout and that girl that never looked at you might spare a moment next time you meet.
Another very important detail that can help you in the future is to learn to listen to people in the business instead of trying to impress them, they have something that you need, knowledge and experience, so whenever you have time talk to the crew, they will continue to be crew even after your career is long gone! Bands come and go. Good crew guys have been touring for years with countless artists and they can teach you a lot more than a single artist and from my experience most of them are happy to share their stories.
Touring nowadays is the only way to make money for most artists not only for the fees but also for the merchandise sales. For a young band the cost to go as support may be high but it will always be better than headlining a bunch of gigs for no one. It can take quite a long time until that holy email in your mailbox pops up, and it will take a long time applying for support slots as well. If it happens rest assured that it will be hard but very rewarding as you will get to know the business, to meet relevant people and to get some decent media towards your music.
And if one day you shall grow to be a bigger artist remember that being nice to support bands will always prove to be a positive thing no matter what, because the world turns and the headliner today may be the support from tomorrow.
Take care and may the holy email reach thy mortal mailbox!
Tommy Morriello (Crash Bang Management) is business and tour manager of Onslaught, Gama Bomb, Exumer, M-Pire Of Evil, Girlschool, Torture Squad and Musica Diablo.
Music Download And Stream, Neither Black Nor White…The ‘Grey Spot’ Is Taking Over
A guest post by Tommy Morriello, Crash Bang Management (a.o. Exumer, Onslaught, Gama Bomb)
As a music manager I am frequently confronted with the question of whether or not I am pro or against illegal and/or free music download and streaming… I used to be pretty much against it like U2′s manager Paul Mcguiness.
I have not changed my mind in regard to the rights an artist has – to get paid for what he does – but I see now that the source of the problem and the solution lie far away from the music end-consumer.
Music download can be something positive, and it is! I do believe that viral marketing can have a huge impact on someone’s popularity and therefore further his career. The main question is: how to make a profit and run a business, where there is no real income from it’s main product – in this case the music?
I hear a lot of people talking about merchandise and live shows being the real solutions for the future – I just like to remind everyone that merchandise and live shows already were parts of an artist’s income before the advent of the Internet. Therefore this is not only a weak, but also an absolutely stupid, answer to the problem.
You must now be thinking that I am still against free download and streaming, but no, I am not. I just believe that those who offer it for free should pay for using music as part of their advertising arsenal.
Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Telecom and even mobile phone companies being some of many corporations that take advantage of a product that lacks or has outdated, general and global regulations, simply lobby their way through and around royalties and copyrights, under the “we promote” flag.
Nokia comes with Music and that’s cool. But who does Nokia pay for this great feature? And how much?
Companies, which use 3rd party products, brands or services, pay insignificant amounts of money to Artists and labels, forcing them to either join this “criminal” scheme or to be doomed to oblivion.
A year ago I was talking with a business manager from a known German indie label, analyzing Spotify’s popularity and he told me that it was a necessary evil. The label had to join since everyone was doing it. The label had over a 2 Million plays from 40 different artists.
That Label got £440 for the lot, and after taking their commission (25%) of £110 plus £250 for campaign-advertising. The remaining £80 was proportionally divided, £40 going to the artists. There you can see how much 1 year on Spotify will give you…
Now remember before you slander a record label, keep in mind that not all of them are bad and almost none of them are making huge profits nowadays!
If you take the recent article from The Independent about superstar Lady Gaga, who probably has better royalty rates than the above mentioned label, she got around £108 for 1 million plays.
I am not sure, but I would bet my life that the label invested a slightly bigger amount in order to promote the “Lady” in question.
I believe that digital sales could easily be obsolete in a couple of years, and all music available could be for free to listen to, if artists and labels would get their share from these Multi-billion-dollar companies.
If music is not to be sold over the counter, that is fine – neither will newspapers, movies or books in the future – but those who provide means of mass distribution and also earn billions through advertising and attracting investors should pay their suppliers accordingly, in this case the music industry and the artists.
This is the “Grey Spot” in the music business, leave the end consumer alone. At present, music distribution is a free product for Internet giants who managed for years, to stay away from the spotlight, blaming either the consumer or the labels for something that they are creating: the utter downfall of the artist as a professional worker.
If you have the illusion that indie labels make a lot of money, you are wrong. I see many A&R directors, PR managers working out of passion, driving to meetings in 1997 Toyota Corollas, and sleeping at travelodges.
Indie labels sometimes fight to present new products and even help bands to tour, knowing that this might be a risk investment with no compensation at the end of the day.
The idea of free music is now moving to another level. Some of the big festivals (especially in Europe) offer artists a spot on the festival, telling them that this is a great opportunity for them to promote themselves. Artists go there, play for free and on top they spend a couple of thousands in transport and lodging, so a sold out festivals can put their names on the bill and make even more money.
If this idea of promotion sticks, then we will see the demise of professional agents, managers, crews and artists, who will simply stop working, as there is no more money whatsoever to be made, never mind a living.
Stage production in the last 10 years has never been so bad. If we compare it to the ’80s (OK, they were a bit over the top), even smaller acts would back then offer something for your eyes besides the music.
If no action is taken, soon we shall see music, currently an industry employing thousands of people, becoming a hobby like gardening, or knitting in few years.
