Something to write home about...

I've been wanting to write this for a while, but a conversation this evening has prompted me to finally put finger to keyboard and get it done.

I was talking on twitter to a smart young chap about the merits of DIY and why the word "unsigned" is unmitigated bullshit.

Then he said "Still, if someone offers my band a record deal now there's no way we'd turn it down". 

I suspect this is what most young musicians would say if asked, and my issue is not with a musician wanting a record deal, it is that 'yes' is the default position.

Ever wonder why your band only ever plays shitty gigs? It's because you keep saying yes to shitty gigs.

Let me rewind.

I was in a band from the age of 18-24, and during that time we were trying to "make it". We said yes to everything. Gigs, record deals, putting on gigs for other people, the list goes on. I can't think of one single instance where we said no. 

You want to know where that got us? Nowhere. Worse than that, it cost us easily £1000+ in travelling costs for gigs, and specifically £1500 (naively) paid to a record label to fund the "manufacturing" of 500 CDs on a "pressing and distribution" deal. I could write a book on the utter bullshit involved in that deal, which was effectively a scam aimed to take money from young bands, lots of them, for about 5 years. The label in question is now under new management, and I have no idea if the practice still takes place, so I won't name them.

But I digress. Saying 'Yes' all the time got us precisely shit all. In fact, it directly led to us splitting up.

My current band, formed of the ashes of that previous incarnation, is a 'no' band. This is not to say we turn down everything, instead it means that 'no' is our default position until convinced otherwise.

If 'yes' is your default position, then you literally agree to anything, and there's no need for someone to change your mind. Why would they? You've already agreed.

Here's what saying 'no' has got us so far:

• We've played seven gigs. At least five of those were with bands we were going to see anyway, including a few of our favourite bands. We've turned down more gigs than we've played.
• We've only played one shitty gig. This was the only gig where our default position was 'yes'. We were still in the old mindset and it was by far one of the worst gigs we've ever played.
• Because we only play good shows, we've got fans. This is because they're the shows we would have been at anyway. They are our audience, because we are the audience.
• We were offered a record deal by a really cool guy from a well respected UK punk label. We considered it, agreed in principal, but then things started to drag. We were concerned that our "adult lives" may not be conducive to what the label needed from us. We could see shitty gigs looming on the horizon. We turned it down, being open and honest about our reasons. The label came back and offered us all of the promotion with none of the pressure. This was good news. This would never have happened when our default position was 'yes'.
• Most importantly, we like being in this band. We only do stuff we want to do. How can you not be happy doing that?

The point is this. If you agree to everything you are offered, then you are devaluing what you do. You are a musician who is pouring your life in to your music. If somebody wants to do something with that music then they should damn well have to convince you that it is in your best interests before you agree.

You don't have to be a dick about it either. You have the right to ask questions and be honest with the people that you are talking to. If they don't respect that then you were right to ask those questions and they should be avoided like the plague.

Change your default setting to 'no'. Wait to be convinced. Do things on your terms. 

You'll get a lot further than you will by saying 'yes'.

The music I listen to now is better than the music I listened to when I was younger.

Here are some things people say:

• It's not as good as in MY day.
• That is SO derivative! It just sounds like X mixed with Y with Z singing
• Why listen to that? Listen to X - they started it all.

Here's how science works:

• Scientist has new theory
• Tests new theory
• Theory is a success. Theory becomes popular
• New scientist comes along
• Adapts theory, builds on theory, combines other theories.
• Theory is improved. New theory becomes popular.

Derivation is evolution. You don't have to start at point A when we already have point B. Start at B. When we invented television we didn't have to invent the photograph again.

We improve as we derive.

'Standing on the shoulders of giants'

If I was 16 right now, and I knew what I know now, then I sure as shit would have started a record label.

Not just any sort of record label - a hyperlocal label.

I lived in a small town in Leicestershire called Hinckley, and everyone was in a band. There were at least 5 'proper' bands in our year at school, and everyone in our year was a fan of at least one of them. That's a ready made audience of about 400 kids - If I could turn back time (but somehow not) I'd make some DIY CDs, make some DIY T-shirts, get the music online and start my very own hyperlocal label.

And that's just based on one school year.

Sign up all the bands in your school. Or your town. If it's anything like my town there will be a BUNCH of bands. You can even be selective and only sign the ones that aren't completely shit. Oh ok then, only sign the good ones. It doesn't really matter. Get on with it. They'll all have enough fans to make it worth your while.

However, keep it local. Your niche is that you are the local record label. You are "Hinckley Records" (or at least I would have been), everyone knows you, local press is easy to come by, local gig venues know you're the person to go to for shows.

Your entire town is your audience. Don't worry about anyone outside of that.

Do your research and your costs can be tiny. Put in the effort and your product can be awesome.

You're living in an amazing time. You can literally do this.

To some extent, independent labels have always traded on reputation, the most successful of whom become taste makers within their locality, scene, or genre through no more than putting out consistently good records. This builds a level of trust between the label and the fan, who knows that any record released by the label will have a stamp of quality.

In the early 1980s, Sub Pop Records began as a fanzine (Subterranean Pop), before taking their first steps in to becoming a record label by issuing compilation tapes alongside the fanzine. However, it was with the Sup Pop Singles Club that the label cemented its place in history. The first release on the singles club, that sent subscribers a single on 7" record on a monthly basis, was the debut sing'e by small Aberdeen, Washington band Nirvana - their cover of Love Buzz, originally by Dutch band Shocking Blue. At its peak the singles club had over 2000 subscribers and paved the way for Sub Pop to be the premier label in the grunge scene.

The 2000 plus subscribers to the Sub Pop Singles Club were not aware of what records would be coming their way, but they trusted the label's taste and quality control.

During the 90s, a period that saw many many independent labels becoming imprints for major labels, and punk, grunge, and rock now firmly placed within the mainstream, the power of the independent label to become taste makers in the way that Sub Pop had wained. However, with the rise of the internet, and the increased inviability of old business models, we can see that independent labels' role as curators is returning.

The first example of this that came to my attention was Big Scary Monsters and their 'BSM '10 Collection'. For £17 customers would be sent one mp3 per week, 52 mp3s over the entire year, from both Big Scary Monsters' artists as well as new music from artists who are on other labels, and even some unsigned music. No tracklisting was announced at the time of the launch, and fans were essentially asked to place their trust in BSM to provide them with music that they would love on a weekly basis. The label has been going for nearly a decade and has recently celebrated it's 100th release. Over that time it has cultivated a reputation as one of the best independent labels in the UK, allowing a project such as this to be successful.

While BSM has shown that it is possible to use an already established reputation to make money directly from the role of curator, Northampton based label Lazy Acre Records are running their "Full Stop to Bad Pop" campaign. Full Stop to Bad Pop is a monthly record club that releases digital downloads of records for free. Here Lazy Acre is using the role of curator to build the reputation and become a taste maker. It is a no risk investment, both by the label and by the customer - digital downloads allow for cost free distribution, and the customer is able to try out the service without paying. It is the hope, on the label's part, that if the customer enjoys the records in the club, that they will form a relationship with the label and check out future releases.

Culturally I believe it is essential that we have these curators operating within the music industry. It builds relationships between artists, labels and fans, and what could be more culturally important within music than people sharing music that they love with each other? It is how most music fans discover new artists, and the desire to share is a massive part of being a music fan.

Without the rise of the internet we may not have seen this return to the role of labels as curators and taste makers. Digital distribution allows even the smallest label to begin to build reputations at zero cost, whereas more established labels can use digital technologies to build new business models based around the role of curator.

There are a lot of these "made to order" merch stores that target bands cropping up - Spreadshirt, Toto Merch, Reverbnation's Reverb Store/Audiolife, Streetshops to name but a few.

The idea is that the band doesn't have to get merch made in advance, it can be made to order with the store taking £X and then the artist able to set however much they want to make on top of that set price. For the bands it is a no risk way to sell merch, for the store it's all about the long tail. All good so far.

The Reverb Store and Audiolife (essentially using the same software) also allow bands to sell MP3s and made to order CDs within their store. Nice.

However, they are ALL missing a trick. Any one of these store solutions could become the absolute ultimate in online merch store providers if they just added a couple of features.

If any store manages to tick all of the following boxes then they will win this game. Everyone else can go home.

Made to order merch

Yep, everyone ticks that box. It's the core of their business and I am focusing on these companies instead of other online merch stores, such as Big Cartel, that don't offer made to order merch.

Various currencies

It sounds obvious, but this is the WORLD WIDE web. Bands will have a fanbase that is largely based in one country. Let them set the currency. At the moment, Reverb Store and Audiolife are only available in USD.

Digital music sales

Allow us to put MP3s for sale. If you're feeling REALLY cool, let us give them away. So far, just Reverb Store/Audiolife allow you to sell music.

Let us sell our OWN products in the store.

This for me is the big one. I may not be able to afford 100 bulk T shirts, but I can afford to hand make some really awesome limited edition tapes. Let me sell these alongside the made to order merch, seamlessly in the same place, and you can take 10%. I'll sort out order fulfilment, you just give me that space to sell. Hell, maybe I DO have some bulk T shirts, why can't I sell those ALONGSIDE the ones already in the store? Again, here's 10% for your trouble. It's easy making money isn't it?

I don't even care if it's customisable or embeddable. Give me those features and I'm your's forever.

If just ONE of those stores up there did this, then there would be no need for bands to have separate merchandise, MP3 and physical music stores, regardless of budget or size of band.

The point is that this would be so easy for those companies to do that it's ridiculous that it hasn't been done already. If anyone listens to me who can do this, do it. You'll make millions.

I am a musician.

If I was to list every problem with your service for musicians then there would simply not be enough space on the internet to hold this blog post. For now I have one simple request:

Delete the option "unsigned" for bands and artists.

We are not unsigned. The internet age has blurred the lines between bands and the record labels that they used to rely on. We now have access to full world wide distribution, we can target the "new" press - the blogs - and get our voices heard, we can promote directly to the people who are likely to enjoy our music. We have the power.

We are not unsigned. We are DIY. You MADE us DIY.

As a good friend of mine remarked "the label 'unsigned' suggests that you actually want to be 'signed'".

The difference between the DIY scene and the Independent labels is simply one of experience and contacts. Given time DIY naturally becomes independent. They are one and the same, it is just a case of semantics and time.

The difference between DIY & independent labels and major labels is one of longevity. DIY/Independents have it, majors don't.

The times, they are a changing. You, Myspace, ensured that happened in your early days. The problem is that you still believe in the "unsigned". You need to change in order to survive. Other services are doing things better for musicians, because they don't believe in unsigned, they believe in DIY. If you have any chance of continuing to be the "go to" place for musicians, then you need to embrace DIY. Everything else should logically follow.

So, let's all agree, from now on, we can choose "Independent", "Major", or "DIY".

Any artist who wishes to be referred to as "unsigned" has only themselves to blame.

ITV just LOVE to patronise Africa during this World Cup. Have fun by playing along to their coverage with this handy drinking game!

(Warning: Playing this game will result in certain death through alcohol poisoning)

1 Shot when:

• The team is referred to by their nickname (notice this NEVER happens with any of the European/Asian/South/North American nations)
• Images of townships/smiling children are used in the build up
• Shots of the crowd are acompanied with "They are LOVING just being here" from the commentator.

2 Shots when:

• The continent of Africa is spoken about as if it is one nation OR a phrase like "Africa is united behind _____" is used.
• A team or country is described using the words "proud", "brave", "colourful" or "culture".

3 Shots when:

• ANY African politician/dignatory/religious leader/freedom fighter is mentioned, regardless of the relevance to either the match, or the country involved.
• Clive Tyldesley attempts to speak in an African dialect

There you go, feel free to add your own rules and get completely and utterly smashed.

I don't talk about football on here, but aside from music it is my other first love.

Last night I watched the worst England football performance I have ever seen, and like every single person who watched that game, I have some views on why it went wrong.

I actually think that one thing is wrong with the England team: Fabio Capello.

Now, I'm not usually one to jump all over a manager, but there are several things that I believe Capello has got catastrophically wrong.

The Media/Hype

Back in 1996, during our last really good performance in a major tournament, England football was still covered in the newspaper back pages. Now every single move is front page news and every tiny mistake leads to a player being utterly crucified by the media. It's not cool, and the media have to take responsibility, but this is unfortunately the way of the world right now, so the matter has to be dealt with.

Capello has done absolutely nothing to deflect this pressure away from the team, and indeed has actually managed to increase the pressure exerted by the media through his own stubborness and, dare I say it, arrogance.

For example, Rob Green makes a mistake in a match. It happens. If you're a defender or a striker you usually get away with it, but if you're a goalkeeper then usually it results in a goal. We all understand that. If this had been Sir Alex Fergusson or Arsene Wenger or Jose Mourinho then in the post match interview you can bet your bottom dollar that the response would have been "I have complete faith in Rob, he's our keeper". There. Done. No more speculation.

Instead, Capello allowed the media to speculate for an entire week about the goalkeeping situation and then dropped Green 2 hours before the start of this game. The message this sends out to all of the England players is "make one mistake, and you're dropped". This would explain why every single player last night played like they were terrified.

Squad/Team Selection

I think we have heard plenty about Capello's insistance on a 4-4-2 formation that simply does not suit our best players, and his reluctance to play someone like Joe Cole who is a consistent performer for England, but let's consider 2 players that are not in South Africa.

One is, outside Rooney, the top scoring English striker in the Premiership this season, and one is the English Goalkeeper who has kept more clean sheets than any other in the Premiership this season. Both feats achieved in mediocre mid table teams. Darren Bent and Paul Robinson. Whatever happened to Capello picking on form?

When Sven and McLaren were usurped, one of the major criticisms of both was their reluctance to drop big name players and pick on form. When Capello came in we thought this had all changed. But think about it - how different was last night's starting 11 to the team that played under Sven and McLaren? Capello has fallen into the same old trap of trying to force Lampard and Gerrard into a 4 man midfield. It will never work. Either change your formation to suit them, or change your selection to suit your formation. You can't make it work.

He's lost the players

Johnson, Terry, Carragher, Cole, Lennon, Lampard, Gerrard, Barry, Heskey, Rooney. Not a single one of these players plays for a team outside of the top 6 Premiership clubs. Several have competed in and even won Champions League finals, and several are covetted by the greatest teams in the world. They are undoubtedly world class individuals surrounded by very very good players.

So why is it they can't string together two passes against a team that only a couple of months ago Republic of Ireland beat 3-0? It has to be a mental problem.

And ultimately, the mental state of the team is Capello's responsibility, and he has spectacularly failed. The players are not playing for him, they are playing in spite of him.

---

I can't really see how this is going to turn around. We need a manager who has the balls to make difficult decisions, but understand how to man manage our players. Unfortunately I don't think that Capello is capable of doing either.

As an England and football fan, I really hope I'm wrong.

My mum received an email today from a company called 'Asia DM' - asiadm.org - that said the following

"Dear  Principal,       
                                        
We are  a domain name disputed registration service company in HongKong, which mainly deal with international company's in Asia,We have something important need to confirm with your company.

On the Apr. 20, 2010, we received an application formally. One company named J.E & Being Holding Limited applied for the internet keyword "gill-blenco-educational" and some domain names relevant to this trademark from our organization..
According to our procedures and in order to protect your intellectual property rights, we need to send this email to the original company for confirming the actual relationship with this company. because that may relate to your intellectual property on internet. Now we have not finished the registration of  J.E & Being Holding Limited yet, in order to deal with this issue better and not to confuse registering these domain names, please let someone who is responsible for trademark or domain name contact me as soon as possible.
 
In addition, we hereby affirm that our time is limited for dissent application . If your company files no dissent within the time limit,we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by J.E & Being Holding Limited.
 
(PS:If you are not in charge of this matter,please transfer this email to appropriate dept.)
 
Best Regards
 Henry Luo
Internet Copyright (Auditing) Dept."

'Gill Blenco Educational' is her company offering educational training to schools. She replied:

"This company has no relationship to me or my company. Please refuse their request. Yours Gill Blenco, Director of Gill Blenco Educational Ltd. "

And then received this:

"Dear Gill Blenco,
 
Glad to receive your reply. 
We know that you have the intellectual property for"gill-blenco-educational".we have found that J.E & Being Holding Limited is not the owner of "gill-blenco-educational".this is why we sent email to inform your company the matter.
 
Now J.E & Being Holding Limited wanted to apply for domain names gill-blenco-educational.com/ gill-blenco-educational.cn/ gill-blenco-educational.com.cn/ gill-blenco-educational.hk/ gill-blenco-educational.com.hk you have not registered yet.Pls confirm if their application these domain name will affect your company?
 
You should know that the domain name takes open registration in world,This is international domain name registration principle,So J.E & Being Holding Limited has right to register it.As a domain name registrar, we have no right to dispute their application.But as the company whose trademarks relate to the applied domains.You will get the priority to register these domain names.We will stop dealing with the registration of the third party temporarily according to our rules.
 
If you don't think their application will affect your benefit,you can give up,we will finish their registration,But if you think these domain names are useful for you,we can send the disputed application form and price list to you and help you register these within dispute period.Pls let us know your decision soon.so that we can handle the next step.
 
Best Regards
 Henry Luo
Internet Copyright (Auditing) Dept."

To me, this seems like a scam to get her to register these domain names at what I suspect would be an extortionate price.

First of all, if I register a domain name with my company of choice, UK Reg, they don't spend time checking to see if there are any companies out there who might have trademarked a similar name. If it's available it is mine.

Secondly, who would gain any advantage by registering these sets of domains? It's not like they're trying to register McDonalds.co.uk

I could be wrong, but it looks dicey to me, and I'm 99.9% sure I'm right.

Thing is, this is a clever scam, because it plays upon people's fears in an area they are not familiar with, but know is important. I am familiar with this area, and even I had to re read this several times before deciding that it was a scam.

Am I right?