Another loss for original bands

Well once again another great thing for original bands in this area will be shutting down for lack of support. Look for the news to be posted on our message board later this week.

You know if I was an original band in Central PA, I’d be ashamed of myself. There aren’t many sites or publications dedicated to the promotion of local original music. Like everything, most take it for granted until it’s gone. Whether a website or publication, it takes a lot of time and money to keep things going. Unsung Hero was the buzz for a few years and then it folded. Perhaps that should have been a wake up call. It wasn’t. No most musicians/bands are like leeches. They suck things dry until there is no more juice left. For all the negative comments over the years about PA Musician, I have to congratulate them for surviving 20 years. They have a “pay to play” format that also works. You want on the cover, you better have an ad in the paper for a few months. They also cater to the dreaded cover bands. I was looking through a copy during MMC and didn’t see any ads for an original band. But then again why would I? God forbid if an original band would spend any money to increase their awareness. Hell it’s bad enough to get them to spend 5 bucks on flyers to promote a show they do have. Why should they? When no one shows up, it’s the club’s or promoter/booking agent’s fault anyhow.

Plus with My Space, you don’t need to do anything else, right? Hell all your “Top friends” are hot chicks from California to make you look cool and the 4-5000 friends you do have are 90% from anywhere but Central PA. You run an “Events Invite” and only have yourself and your band members that have personal My Space accounts attending the show. Of course they say they are bringing 10 people just to make it look good on the “attending” numbers. Can’t forget the 4x’s a day bulletin post you make because with all those “friends” you think your show message is getting lost. When the true fact is that people with “real” friends (1000 or less) see your bulletin twice on a page and write you off for being a jerk or desperate.

Yes if I was in an original band, I’d take a good hard look at what is out there, and see if you can do anything to support it. And by support, I don’t mean leeching on for the ride, I mean putting up some green to help with the cost in keeping it going.

I was talking with a venue manager last week that is looking to advertise with us and they ask why more bands don’t take advantage of our services. They said our rates were “bargains” compared to any other media. They did their homework about our site traffic and asked their patrons what they thought of HBGOnline. “It’s a no brainer for us” they said. Driving home I had to ask myself why more bands don’t take advantage of our services. Years ago that’s all I preached about, trying to drum up support for our website. Less than a handful did take advantage of our services. That was ok for me I guess. Plus I have the porn flicks, adult personal ads and adult toy store that generates some income to help pay for the site expenses. Of course about twice a year some yo yo will get on the message board and ask why these things (porno) are on a music website.

Maybe I should change our business model to reflect that of the PA Musician. You want a PAID gig on a Twisted Tuesday show, you advertise. You want to pimp your show on the Message Board, you advertise. I can hear it now if I would do it. All the pissing and moaning, calling me a sell out and every other name in the book. But then again, if I actually relied on the bands to support our website, I wouldn’t be here today. We would just be like everyone else that started out to do good and was shunned by the same people we were trying to help. That’s a damn shame too. Doing this for 7+ years I can’t tell you the number of bands we helped (for free), the number of times I was told by what we said or the videos shown or the photos taken have helped out a band. Add that to the 100’s of bands we booked over the years for good paying gigs. I too would think it “would be a no brainer”.

Every January I start out thinking that maybe this will be the year more bands will show their support of the website. It’s always good to start that way, but deep down I know, it probably won’t happen. I’m hopeful that someday it will, but I also know that there might be a time when I do some soul searching and ask myself “why am I doing this for nothing.”

So if you like what you see, want to increase your exposure, make money from your music, promote a big show, send me an email to see what we can do for you.

In a few days I’ll be heading down to Ocean City, MD for the yearly family vacation. I can’t FUCKIN wait. Vacation is a time to clear your mind of the day job and every other stresses of life. A time to relax, drink more than normal, and wish you hit the Powerball, so you could do this all the time. There’s something about the ocean that whether drinking coffee on the balcony in the morning or drinking a cold one at night looking out into the waves and endless waters that sends the body into total relaxation mode. I wish there would be some way to capture that feeling for the whole year instead of just 5 days.

Well that’s all for now folks, got to get some things done before the big trip. If I sounded to preachy above, well that’s because it was “On My Mind”. Hopefully some items sunk into your mind. Until next time!!!!

Lator Gators - BigJim