Comments on: The Top 7 Mistakes That Indies Make.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:50:54 +0000

Some good points here! But not sure if most factors are production related (might be biased based on topic of this site). Since there are many excellent quality tunes with no fans, I think by far most are marketing related followed by not taking action and probably crappy music.

By: Keith Jolie

Keith Jolie — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:59:38 +0000

Chris – I agree with your comments…for some reason every now and then you come across a band (I would say they are the exception) that won’t even bother to say hi. It’s as if the bands on the bill are in some kind of competition…shouldn’t be that way.

The more bands promote and talk up one another…the better it is for all of us.

BTW – have you seen Endsville play?? They are awesome…and they talk to other bands (sorry James…couldn’t resist)

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:24:34 +0000

I spent two years around ‘99 involved in the Drum n’ Bass electronica scene in Toronto and found all the artists, followers, MC’s and Djs were infinitely more supportive to the others on the bill and in the scene – and not just to those in their genre. The Toronto Drum n’ Bass producers are world class and in my opinion far superior to anything out there.
I carry those fond memories back with me to the band scene, but do find that most bands don’t even introduce themselves to the other bands on the same bill. There are various things that need to happen to see more unity and less cynicism, hopefully you could attempt to detail in a future post. Cheers.

By: indie internet radio

indie internet radio — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:42:13 +0000

indie internet radio…

Second- These writers seem to infer that the record label� s will stop being A&R sources. I doubt that will be the case. In the major label� s case there maybe an argument that their A&R activities will change as they are always on the look out for…

By: Studio Manifesto

Studio Manifesto — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:54:09 +0000

Bill
What I’m referring to has less to do with the standards of an elitist group, and more to do with the standards of music consumers. How many classic songs, hit records, or just bands that have big followings, have crappy production? Not many. Maybe even none. In the big picture, successful artists (weather indie or mainstream), have good sounding recordings. A minimum standard. The truly great artists have inspired production…much further beyond minimum standards. There is a correlation between production value, and having an audience. They are mutually exclusive.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:20:18 +0000

You see, i think what qualifies as ‘good engineering’ is more a matter of opinion than fact, and its terribly biased. If the qualified engineer can create both hi and low-fi through intended scientific methods, who is he to say which one is ‘better’. It reminds me of taste. A food critique may scoff at me, but i love the taste of cheap yellow mustard- i think its superior to more expensive mustards. People are all different, some of us like sonic crappiness, I’m living proof of this.

I think recording quality took a huge dive around 1970 when everything started sounding extremely crisp and fake. If you didn’t record by these new methods, you would sound too different for anyone to play you. Its like if some authority told all the painters in the world that they were only allowed to paint on brilliant white glossy paper. if they chose to paint on something else they would be completely ostersised by the painting community and excluded from the marketplace entirely.

Sound scientists first figured out how to record music so they could sell it, they gradually tweeked their methods so that they could sell more. This loudness war is just the next step in this progression no different from the development of hi-fidelity. Mixing is an art, but its an art geared towards exploiting a market and creating popular appeal. For an art-form desperately trying to gain recognition outside of those in the know, this motivation seriously hurts its credibility

yea it sucks living under a rock. its even worse when the rocks been plopped there by an elitist group who’ve made a completely arbitrary decision about what is “good”.

By: Daley

Daley — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:19:35 +0000

Pretty empowering stuff there. It’s one thing for indie artists to know that THIS is the time to get with the do-it-yourself mentality, but its another thing to know how to actually do-it-yourself, if you see what I mean. I know too many people who could benefit from identifying those 7 common mistakes, if for nothing more than to realize that they’re actually making (or have made) them.