This article is continued from our April 1st blog post:
And without getting too deep into it (because I feel it’s pretty cut and dry), bands don’t make money off record sales anymore. This isn’t 1964, and the model has changed. Bands make money through other avenues, and if you dig a band and want them to thrive, there is a 98.9% chance that they will need lots of money to even simply exist as a band. That’s not counting the copious amounts of useless green paper it takes to even get an album recorded.
So you don’t misunderstand me: I don’t do this band to make money. Meaning, I don’t sit down and say “Ok..what sound is hot right now! Because that’s what our next single is gonna sound like. I can just hear those checks rollin’ in already!”. My heart is totally devoted to crafting songs that I find beautiful, inspiring, exciting, real, and memorable. But if I can do music I truly love, and feel has integrity, sincerity, and passion, and someone wants to pay me lots of money so I can quit all my other obligations and do music full time, I would be a moron to say no. If I felt like I was going to lose sleep over something, then I won’t do it. Making the decision to wear trucker hats because it’s “cool” and because it might get my band some attention, and agreeing to let someone sync my music so I can make a living off what I love, are two very different things. And besides, shame on any musicians who are wearing trucker hats.
In many ways, I find it ignorant, and frankly damaging when fans heavily scrutinize a band for getting attention, or getting their music placed in a way that would allow a larger audience to hear them. Just because your average ‘layman’ simply has the recorded audio of a brilliant band transmitted into his ear canal, does not mean that somehow that band has magically become less brilliant. If anything, thank the Maker (and depending on if you are religious, or just a Jedi, that could mean Darth Vader) that someone who’s musical diet consists of expected pop-rock crap, might be given the chance to like a kick ass band who stands for something more than Forever 21 stock shares.
This article will continue, and finalize, in its third part tomorrow! Stay Tuned!