Smashing radio hit and CD sales by a artist who's never performed. Possible???

  • Thread starter Thread starter SerenityThen
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The Beatles stopped touring, all together, somewhere around the time either Rubber Soul or Revolver came out (I forget which, and what year they left the road for good)...someone correct me, here...or not...I'll just forget, again :P
 
Unsprung - I'm not sure of the point you're making. Yes the Beatles stopped touring AFTER they were huge. The question behind the post was can you be succesfull (hit radio, CD sales etc) without ever playing live. The Beatles toured like crazy before they put out a record.

Of course succesful acts who have a following can decide not to tour again and continue to be succesful - but generaly they decline in success as time passes and they need to get out on the road again to give their career a boost.

Its funny, you only ever hear about the stories of people who were one minute writing and recording in their bedroom and then were discovered and had a huge success becuse THAT's a story we all want to hear. We don't want to hear about the 2,000 other similar guys who got nowhere! Just like we want to read about the lottery winner not the 1 million losers! LOL
 
My bad, glynb. Forgetting the gist of the discussion, I merely pointed out a band that had hit albums, without ever touring them. But then you pointed out my bad, as well...looking around with shifty eyes...trying to sneak out before anyone else notices...

For me, if my ideal future ever materializes...I'd hafta put a band together.
 
This is a great topic! It's kind of funny because I was planning on starting a thread like this because I have a similar situation... I finished an entire album's worth of work. I recorded it all on my computer at home... I played and programmed all the instruments and sounds and vocals.... it sounds like a full "band" but it's really just me....I think it's pretty good for a 19yr old... feedback would be nice... ;) http://www.bandofapathetics.com

But what we be even nicer is some tips on how to promote this type of project.... i'm not looking to "make it big" or get a hit song... I just want to get the music out to as many people as possble... thanks!!
 
The more I look around the net the more depressed I get about the chances of actualy promoting music on line. This is due to the way the Net works. It is a free for all, which is democratic and to be welcomed of course - that's the good part that it gives everyone a chance.

But it also means the place is flooded with indie music. You begin to get a feel for how it must have been in A&R departments who get constantly flooded with demos. Somewhere in there is maybe a great artist but how to find it amongst the sea of stuff!

You also get to realise just how 'easy' it is nowadays for someone to produce some really good pro-sounding music. There are people on this group who have produced music which given a different set of circumstances could have been big.

Hoping to get somewhere in the biz is like hoping to win the lottery. Self-promotion and taking every opportunity to promote yourself is like buying extra lottery tickets - improves your chances, but no guarantee.
 
Every Band you've ever heard of who "made it" Worked their Ass off for 10 YEARS before they broke out.

Remember this.

repeat it over and over.

10 YEARS!!

Now beofre you think.."but so-and-so is only 16!..." remember this: They didn't make themselves a success.. their Producer did. And there, my friend, is your 10 years.

xoxo
 
Well I agree with the thrust of what you say in that if you don't work hard then you won't get anywhere. 10 years seems a bit of an arbitary time, some bands make it quicker, some take 20 years, etc. We bcould all quote examples.

Working 'your ass off' is just buying lots of extra lottery tickets in the music biz lottery, thats all, still no guarantee you'll win.

There are SOME examples of people who didn't do any live work much to speak of, but sat at home working on their music without a band and had a lucky break with a demo, or more likely knew someone in the business, which lead on to success. But they are few and far between IMO.

There is no A-Z road map for success in music, start here, do this and this, and that, and you'll end up a star 10 years on, etc.

But sure, hard work doesn't hurt and can improve your chances a little.
 
I agree with the general gist here that you are unlikely to make it big by a fluke.

I am really writing about the person who said that they got depressed by the incredible wealth of talent "out there".
I have the opposite reaction - I think its just brilliant! I have not bought a CD for at least a year since I discovered mp3.com.
I now have an mp3 player in my car, and can fill a CD up with 200 songs from nobodies. Really great music from nobodies.

I personally think that the "democracy" offered by the wealth of online music means that I decide who and what I listen to, rather than a radio DJ pushing the same old 20 songs.

I also believe (maybe I am wrong) that the days of ultra-rich pop megastars is in a terminal decline (less sales, more competition, worse deals from record companies)
 
I was the 'get depressed guy'.

I have mixed feeligns. On the one hand I welcome the democracy of it all, the fact that anyone can get their stuff 'published' without having to impress some a&r guy. i myself intend to take that route once my stuff is ready.

The point I was making is that I bet you have to trawl through a lot of sub-standard stuff before you get to the artists you like? In the past the sifting and sorting was done by record labels which unfairly excluded some good artists, but also kept the no-hopers of the record shelves too!

Its like imagine if anyone who wanted to publish a newspaper and get it on the newsstand could do. How would you find a quality newspaper if you had 1,000 to choose from? The variety might be welcome, but you'd have to sort through a lot of rubbish newspapers to get to the one you like!

As for the end of the mega-rich pop star, I thought this too for a while, but i have reconsidered my view. What I see happening is record compnaies amalgamating as the industry delines. You'll then end up with say 3 or four global players who are mega rich companies who dominate the whole industry at the mass level, distribution, media (MTV) and reatil etc. They will decide who we all (across the globe) get to listen to in the mainstream channels, so you will still have your Britaney Spears and your Justin Timberlakes etc, and they will be huge international stars (almost exclusively American as the UK industry declines terminaly). Look at the global film industry and there you have the pattern for music. At one time UK France and Germany had thriving film industries able to compete with the States, now look at it. And that's a bad thing because you tend to lose innovation and tend to get the same old crap being churned out.

The down side is that there will be less cash available to gamble on breaking new artists/bands - thats already happening. Only the few big global players will be able to take risks and they will minimise those by only promoting artists who are similar to what has been succesful before in terms of shifting lots of product.

So you get bands like 'Busted' put forward as the future of rock.
Get my point? Thats why I'm depressed!
 
SerenityThen said:
Anybody know if it's possible for a independent band or solo artist to have a smash radio hit and follow that up with large CD sales all before they did any touring or any local live shows?

Do you know of any bands or artist that started out this way?

If I remember right, Vanilla Ice caught fire when some D.J. decided to play the B-side of his record and it took off from there. Im not sure if he did any live shows before that but maybe at the time it did'nt matter.

What about Beck? Did he perform much before LOSER broke big?

Anybody know of any other examples? Is it possible?
Click to expand...
I think it can be done,with some hard work and shameless self promotion.
btw,never use the term"artist"in the same post as the name
"vanilla ice"!
 
I gotta chime in here. PTI........I think sites like mp3 and the like have contributed to the decline. It's a two edged sword. The "nobodies" are getting their music out there, and that's a good thing........but now nobody is making any money! As far as the mega labels is concerned, it's down to five I think already! The good thing about all this is, the majors are going to be forced to restructure their thinking sooner or later...after all, they are the ones that have a lock on the distribution and that's really their only advantage right now that I can see.


bd
 
on PTI's post and the merit/problems of mp3:

You are dead right about having to "trawl" through rubbish on a site like mp3.com. compiling a collection of 50 good songs takes hours. but its a bit like being an amatuer A&R man myself really, insofar as I have to make a quick decision about what songs are good (and will keep me entertained in my car) and which ones arent - I try to look beyond production to the actual songs/performances. Its actually a sort of hobby for me. Maybe I should analyze my decision making process and post it here, so that songwriters can see what someone (like me) looks for in a new song - I certainly realise that all the cliches are true (like "dont start with a 60 second intro" and stuff like that).

on the topic of the money "not being in music any more" - I think this is true for a recording artist- and here's why:

record companies are finding it increasingly risky to foster talent and promote it worldwide; its more competitive and expensive.
so they have to reduce risks to ensure a profit. A side point is that you are competing with older music which is still being re-issued on CD, which was not the case so much 30 years ago.

This means they wont take a chance on someone who is ugly, they wont take a chance on a big band (who might break up before the profits roll in), they wont take a chance on something "too" avant garde.

Its so bad that its actually risky taking a chance on someone talented, because the talent you build up could go on to sue you and work for a competitor (George Micheal).

I think that the logical consequence is that a record company is really interested in pairing a talented performer who looks beautiful along with slick songwriters. Its happened in Country, and its increasingly happening in mainstream music (britney, the spice girls)- so who makes the record money? Songwriters, Marketers and the singers who develop "staying power" (Kylie)

Sorry to harp on about this - I think its interesting!!

AndrewR
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/371/dead_mans_corner.html
 
I suppose one positive thing to come from the decline of the record sales industry would be a concentration on live performance as a way of making money.

You may be able to download music for free from the net so no profit for the artist there, but you can't and never will be able to download a live performance (and a 'live' video/DVD is not the same thing).

There's a special magic at a good live show which people are preapred to pay for and you just can't get sat at home watching the same artist on the box.

So if an artist can't get a recording deal, they can work on their live shows and make money that way.

When you look back historicaly the era of mass purchasing of recorded music may turn out to be a relatively short one- say 1930s up to 2000s. Whereas musicians have been playing and living from making music live since..

....well, ever since culture began.
 
The only comment I would make about that is, recorded music has only been around for that long because prior to that, there was no means to record. I will agree with the general idea of your post though.

bd
 
Savage Garden is a perfect example. Hit single on radio and a video and they didn't even have a band! Their first gig was at Southbank in Brisbane to thousands of people. That whole first album was recorded in the basement of a home studio in Sydney with a great producer. They sent out 200 odd tapes, and this one producer really liked them and took a chance, recording them himself. That album went on to sell something like 7 million copies.
 
Well its examples like that which are exceptions to the rule, I mean that was an extraordinarily fortunate occurance for 'Savage Garden' the fact that some big shot producer actualy got to hear their unsolicited demo - highly unlikely, but happened in that case apparently.

it's stories like that that give all the little guys (like me) working away at home on thir PCs/portastudios hope that they too may be so fortunate. All they need to do is produce some good music and send out some demo CDs and sit back and wait for the producer to call...

It's not gonna happen, except for a piece of very good fortune, but the wannabees will sieze on this and hold on to it as proof that it can happen.

It's like reading about the life of a lottery winner and thinking that the same could happen to you, it COULD, but its not very likely.
 
glynb,
Someone wins the lottery every day...somewhere! It's not as far fetched for someone who is willing to do massive amounts of shameless self-promotion. Like DU said, those guys sent out over 200 tapes. I'm quite sure though If it were me, I would not be sending unsolicited material....sure sign of an amateur.


bd
 
Yes sure, 1 person wins the lottery ...but 1 million others don't! Does it mean you don't buy a ticket, no of course not, at least it gives you hope.

The 'unsolicited ' thing is key of course, you're right on that. What we need to know is if Savage Garden sent out 200 unsolicited tapes and were lucky, or had built up 200 contacts in the music biz and one of the contacts paid off.

There is a big difference in the two scenarios.

As for being 'amateur', well its very difficult for an amateur to network and build up any biz contacts, especaily as he/she has to hold down a day job to pay the bills, and without contacts then all demos are going to be 'unsolicited' - bit of a vicious cycle. Some artists are good at the networking pushing themselves forward look at me thing and some aren't. Maybe that makes all the difference in the end?
 
Talent

If you have true talent, and your music is different then what is playing now on the radio and people like it you will get noticed.
 
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Buffalo Bob Swindell
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The Starmaker Machine
Central Greyhound Station
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