There’s been plenty of talk, rumors and speculation regarding Amazon entering the digital music marketplace. Recent rumors regarding their purchasing eMusic proved unfounded but it appears that they will still be launching a service of their own.
Digital Audio Insider has a post referring to some of their own on the situation but also collects Swindleeeee’s postings on the matter - which point to other coverage while also offering plenty of thought on the matter. For anyone curious on the issues facing a new company entering the digital music market today it’s a good collection of reading.
A couple weeks ago Eric Warner, a promoter and musician from Ontario, found out the CFL was naming a Grey Cup festival Over the Top, which just happened to be the name of his festival now celebrating it’s sixth year this may. The Globe and Mail has a full update
Apparently though they were more than willing to make other arrangements
“This is a non-issue for us,” she says, noting that a scant 8,000 tickets remain. “It’s a working title — we haven’t done a festival launch yet, so it’s not a big deal.”
Now if they had spent money on more promotion I wonder if they would have been so accommodating? Regardless Over the Top takes place May 3rd-6th, is all ages and you can catch locals playing the fest this year including Julie Doiron, Rich Aucoin and BA Johnston.
I got the chance to see this movie via a presentation during the In the Dead of Winter festival earlier this year and I will once again highly recommend people go see this movie. It is seriously both entertaining - and if you care, informative. I also hear it might be somebody’s birthday celebration as well….someone who has contributed to a couple posts here and is involved with putting the night on…..oh fuck it - Happy [early - i’m never early with these things!] Birthday Chuck Teed!!!!!!
Check out a little French twist on the old fashioned music blog. La Blogothèque has a video section called Les concerts à emporter (translation: “The Take-Away Shows”) that feature artfully shot original indie-rock performances from bands like The Shins, Arcade Fire, The National, Hidden Cameras and Islands. There are 44 clips already in the can (available in a feed, via iTunes, YouTube or Daily Motion) and I am pretty sure there more interesting clips will be showing up as well.
So if you read A little Less Their Majesties, you’ll know where this post is coming from.
Before I get into this one though I should clarify something I didn’t make clear in the last post - Joi and I are not done working with Their Majesties, if they need anything we will certainly continue helping them - just on a day to day basis their need for us will not be what we were expecting it to be hence our search for another band. Which brings me to:
We are now looking for one band to manage. Music style/genre is not important. Making good music is. Us liking your music is the first step
Assuming we like the music [and your performance of it], the next step is do we like the members of the band. And do they like us?
If we cross those two bridges successfully then we can discuss more specific details.
One key we have though is what we call the commitment challenge [a challenge because it’s hard to find people who are commitment free]. How frequently can you tour? Do you want to tour? Will you tour anywhere we can send you [worth doing]?
Bands with students need not apply.
People with serious full time jobs need not apply.
We want to work with bands that wish to achieve a career in music [or at least dedicate themselves to music for a period of time].
All we do is music focused, we want the same [as much as possible] in the artists we work with.
What We Offer
Plenty of Ideas
Professionalism
Investment
We only started working with Their Majesties late last year and we were still feeling out the relationship and defining our role, but this is what we had done to date for them:
* submitted grant applications on their behalf [50% success rate]
* applied to festivals with their assistance and on our own
* provided short term loans
* set up a month long residency at the Drake Hotel in Toronto
* booked a few dates
* submitted their music to blogs - got one great review out of that that made it worth it, attempted additional PR [we now have a real publicist available]
* we had the band develop an internal band agreement
* submitted their music to CD Baby, Maple Music
* coordinated events such as their Radio3 appearance with Radio3 staff, same with Gibson
* we were in the process of setting up a national tour
Basically to summarize: we want good people making good music that will trust us to handle the business end and at least consider the various ideas we have [keeping the artist and their goals etc in mind]. We are looking for partners and/or bands to develop relationships with - label it as you please.
FYI: We have business loans and investors and thus we do require something in writing.
Interested in talking, send an email to info(at)fhttrecords.com
Or perhaps you just want to put out a record
We are also looking for at least one more act to sign to the label portion of our operations.
Again genre is not important. Good music is. All the same stuff as above.
And by all the same stuff above we mean all of it, you have to be able to tour, trust our ideas [The Drake was just one of about 1243], and be willing to work with us.
We’re thinking we’ll be focusing on putting out vinyl and offering as many digital options as possible. If the idea of free music scares you you probably wouldn’t want to work with us. There’s probably other specifics we have that may turn some bands off but we’ll deal with those on a band by band basis.
Again interested - you can email links to your music to info(at)fhttrecords.com
If you prefer, you can drop off a CD to the Rock Garden and/or email us for our mailing address.
In case you don’t know us at all:
Johanna and I both have studied business, we have operated the Rock Garden for two years now this month, registered the label last year and are preparing for the official launch anytime now. We have a number of music related projects and ventures in the works that will definitely benefit anyone involved with us [to varying degrees]. We both love music.
Soooooooo……..
Their Majesties have decided in light of their drummer search and other personal interests that for the immediate future their focus will not be so much on the band. They are not breaking up or calling it quits, but they will mainly be sticking close to home for the timing being. Daniel has decided that he will be returning to school in the fall and thus serious touring and all that good stuff will no longer be an option. They will continue writing and working on new material - this is definitely not intended to be the end of things.
For us [Joi and I] though it is the end - the guys have no need for us anymore [at least not doing anything we’d want to do - sickos] – I’m kind of sad and Joi is disappointed [she feels like she’s been dumped! haha ]but we both completely understand. Joi summed it up nicer than I could:
I believe they have a lot of potential within the music business but I also believe as individuals they would have lots of potential outside the music business and it is their choice to pursue their potential as they see best.
I sometimes hate it when she’s right. I think that was one of the two best things about working with these guys, the raw talent they had ensured they had a fighting chance at least. [The other thing was their openness to new ideas/”experimenting” - “” for Andrew].
But here’s to the guys achieving everything they deserve - and hopefully sticking with the music to some degree because not doing so would just be a shame.
While I can see this company being displaced [or bought] in the future by a larger rival/alternative - I have been unable to find a better alternative at this time for bands looking for a quick and easy way to sell digital tracks.
Bands that sign up now get 100 cards for free and additional cards cost as follows:
* 100 cards = $99.00 (99 cents each)
* 250 cards = $187.50 (75 cents each)
* 500 cards = $250.00 (50 cents each)
* 1000 cards = $450.00 (45 cents each)
For Canadian [or other international orders - Disc Revolt is based in Atlanta] there is a shipping fee for the free cards. If anyone else in Halifax might be interested in getting the first 100 free cards I’ve asked about bundling orders and shipping to one address to save each band the full shipping cost. Interested, email me at info(at)fhttrecords.com.
The picture above is a card I did up for Their Majesties in about 5 minutes. While the intent is to sell these cards, I think as a promotional tool is where these cards will find their true value for bands. Not only are the cards more affordable to give away, you can actually track how many are redeemed/listened to after the fact unlike a CD.
For the purposes of our label I can see these being inserted with vinyl releases providing purchasers with access to a digital version of all our releases immediately - while saving us from having to direct people to our site to download the tracks [because we’d have to design, print, insert [post]cards regardless directing people and may or may not have the means of tracking the downloads etc.].
The tour in May is going to be great and will hit Quebec and Ontario
but not before we get a few shows in on the east coast first.
The dates are as follows:
Fri April 20th @ the Attic, Halifax w/ King Konquerer and the Marble
Index (hamilton)
Fri April 27 @ the Peel Pub, Halifax w/ Tim Chaisson Band
Sat April 28 @ the Peel Pub, Halifax w/ Tim Chaisson Band
Fri May 4 @ Le Bar Vestiaire, 5141 St Denis, Montreal w/ Guests 10pm
Sun May 6 @ Babylon, Ottawa 8pm
Mon May 7 @ Circus Room, Kitchener w/ The Imports 10pm
Tues May 8 @ the Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto 9:30 pm
Wed May 9 @ the Highland Tap, Niagara Falls, 10pm
Thurs May 10 @ Call the Office, London, w/guests
Fri May 11 @ The Red Rooster, Burlington, Live DVD taping. 10pm
I’ve got my new music video online for everyone to preview before it goes to MUCH MUSIC next week. The shoot was great fun and for any of you filmies out there it was done in ONE SHOT. We rehearsed it all day and did 6 takes on 35 mm film and they added the comic strip look in post.
]but we both completely understand. Joi summed it up nicer than I could:
