Brothers in Arms - Group Issues

Well, being an artist in a band is much more complex than being a solo artist. Despite the fact that you have someone to share your difficulties and obstacles with, a band is a much more pain in the ass when it comes to management. And often when there arise problems in a band, this affects not only the managers, but the band members also.

Well, basically most of the problems show up when a band starts without any agreement. And they usually do. I guess 90 of 100 bands don’t give a damn about having an agreement of some kind at the start, they just want go and kick ass on the pub stage. Well, almost every band from 80-90ies started this way, without any contract between them. And, unfortunately, many of their members still continue to sue each other in the court. Though, on the other hand, many bands still continue peacefully earning tens of millions without any formalities, though this still bites occasionally.

Here is my advice:

The time to make an agreement between yourselves is now, when everything is cool and friendly. Even a bit of success makes some people behave in a strange way and say odd things, and you never know, with whom that might happen in your band. Some relative may tell your guitarist that he is the star of the band, or a rival manager may provocate your vocalist to “get on top”. Then, with millions of dollars on your table, you might find yourself insulting and beating each other, each of you crying out that without him/her the band would be dead (Btw, according to my observations, most of the bass players always choose to sit in the corner and silently watch the riot with tears in their eyes). And what’s next – you kill the golden goose, the band breaks up.

So try to arrange some sort of agreement until everything is neat, because you can do it in a friendly way. And it must contain at least these issues:

Key member(s) – This concept was created because you can’t treat a band member who plays lead guitar/lead vocals and is the songwriter of the group and a percussionist who appears on 2 tracks equally These are the people who have the most influence on the group. And some of the record companies treat key member’s decision as a bands decision and if a key member leaves the band, they consider it broke up. Key member can be one or several persons. Sometimes it’s every person of the band. If a band consists of 2 or 3 people, it usually is.

Percentages – This is what it’s all about. How much does each member get from every track. Sometimes bands split evenly, sometimes they split evenly only on live performances. A band may have different splits for record, merchandising, radio and TV performances etc.

Firing & Hiring – Who decides this? What kind of vote must a member have to decide to fire a band member or invite a new one? Get this covered.

Expenses – What kind of vote do you need for the group to spend money?

  

Сhange the agreement – What kind of vote do you need to change the terms of the agreement you’ve written?

Quitting – Is everyone free to quit at will? If you’re in the middle of a tour and it suddenly strikes your drummer that he was created to play cricket, can he walk out of the game? Or must he/she wait until you’ll finish the tour or the list of concerts? Will he be allowed to leave even after that? (he might not be, but my advice – when a band member definitely wants out – get rid of him as fast as you can) 

Former Members – What happens when you or other members quit? What about the percentages of your past activity? Do they still stay the same? Will you receive percentages from the band’s future activities? Do you take with you any songs that you’ve written or collaborated?

Another very important issue is the name of the group. Name is the groups trademark/service mark and is protected by it. At first, when you are looking for a bands name and have an idea, search it up. In the eighties there were many legal disputes about bands with similar names, driving fans from one another. But then there was no internet and a Liverpool band couldn’t be aware of similar named band in Canada. Now this is not an excuse. So do a research – begin with ITunes, Google, MySpace, YouTube, Bandcamp etc. There can be further researches done – in Patent & Trademark offices if interested. But usually, musicians don’t go this far. But don’t neglect this research! Because if there is already a mid-level band named do-mi-sol in Hawaii, and you begin to promote your band do-mi-sol in Istanbul and achieve great success, they may stop you from selling your records in the U.S. and other very uncomfortable things may follow. Another advice – never, never enter a quarrel about group name issues without a lawyer. This is a very complex and deep issue to deal with and needs a strong knowledge of law. A musician, or even a manager can not handle this alone (I myself gave up after reading about 50-60 pages of name/trademark issues without understanding much, and it was getting only deeper).

You also have to think about group name in such cases as: the drummer leaves, the group, the main songwriter leaves the group, the lead guitar/vocal leaves the group, 3 of 5 members leave the group, the group breaks up. There are many other possibilities, but most of them are regulated by one of these options:

 No one can use the name after the break up, doesn’t matter if some of you perform together

Any majority of the group can use the name. Let’s say band has 5 members, 3 of them together can use the name

Only the lead singer, lead guitar, or songwriters can use the name

Only the key members together can use the name (and if they perform without each other they can’t) 

So it would be really nice to regulate all these things among you straight from the start, and don’t ignore it – it will only lie sleeping until you’ve achieved something, then it might wake up and destroy the dream you’ve created together. But all this can be avoided by a simple agreement after a several hours of planning. So go for it.

The sound of silence - Submitting Demos

So, after several months of dedicated work you’ve came to the magnificent moment, when you must step out of the studio and begin showing & offering your songs (or demos) to record labels & the A&R. Heart beats rapidly, everything around comes in pink and you can’t help imagining yourself on the cover of Rolling Stones. Well, sorry for the spoiler, but all the glory will fade away very rapidly after you’ll celebrate your hundredth mail without answer. The main problem is that 90% of the record labels, even the small indie ones don’t accept unsolicited material. And another problem is that even the ones who don’t accept it, still encourage you to send your demos to them. So even if you spend a lot of time in a web research, you’ll still have no idea if your demo will be sent to the spam box or trash can automatically or not.

Well, in case if you don’t know - unsolicited material means materials the record label hasn’t invited you to send, or materials submitted by representatives with whom label has not had business association with.

Well, you do have a tough battle in front of you. Labels or A&R persons are not in habit of answering for several months even if they like your material. They have to check a lot of things until they contact you. So you never know how much time will pass until you get answered (mind you, this is the rare case when they get interested in you, in 95 from 100 sent emails you won’t even get auto responders answer). A middle-budget UK indie label receives about 150 solicited demos per week and 500-700 demos from guys like you. Feel free to calculate your chance.

Most labels encourage you to send your demos in a post envelope or an email. As a common rule, the demo package must content a bio, several tracks, photos and links. But even if you can provide all these, you still need the knowledge of the form of sending your demos. Because if you put something inappropriate in your package, you’ll definitely miss the tiny chance that you have. So here are the essential tips that will keep your demos as far as possible from the trash can:

Know whom are you sending your material to – If you are a garage rock band and send your demos to a hip-hop label that’s a waste of time. Do a little research of what kind of music does the label deal with.

Make everything clear and easy to listen and discuss  - don’t submit a link that they’ll have to join, search your name on or anything else that’s pain in the ass, they have no time for all that crap. Make it so that all they have to do is click play. Do not submit something that has an expiration date, because they might draft your email and get back to it in 2-3 months and get disappointed.

Check if you’re addressing the right person – most of the labels have several departments and do not mix them. Don’t send your mp3 to a technical director instead of A&R.

Most important - Keep it as short as possible: - short band bio. Not a 3 page booklet of how magnificent they are and how the vocalist stole his grandmother’s money to buy his first guitar. Keep it professional and not longer that 2/3 of a page. Who are you, what style do you play, where have you performed, reviews you managed to get, ingredients. Enough.  Do not praise yourself, just put down the facts. Short demo – go with 2 or maximum 3 of your best songs. More just won’t be listened. With most of the labels sound cloud and YouTube are fine. Several best pics – and check out do they prefer attachments or links in that case.

Don’t worry too much about the demo quality - As I’ve already mentioned, record labels do not expect to hear professional recording quality on demos form beginning artists. Well, though you must have some limits – a detuned acoustic guitar recorded through a 5$ Skype microphone doesn’t count for a demo.

Pick songs which have a superb start - Here’s a secret: most of the A&R persons listen to just first 30 seconds of a track. If it doesn’t grab their attention, they throw it away. So do not pick up a song which is mild for first 2 minutes but has a divine guitar solo in the end. It won’t be heard.

Include all the links – Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Sound cloud, Bandcamp, etc. They want to see how far have you gone while promoting yourself.

Be polite – Though most of the people you’re about to contact come from music (and frequently from the least academic music), they still won’t appreciate you being unceremonious with them. Vanity is the Devil’s favorite sin.  

Sending Demos is a cynic business. You just won’t hear back from more than 90% of your submissions. Also, you’ll hear “no” a lot. But don’t be scared and use every opportunity, even the negative answer – ask for a advice, suggestion of other label who might like you and so on. Look at this as a opportunity to turn it in a positive answer for the next time.