I got this email recently from a listener, and I thought I’d share my long-winded response with you. Since I was an A&R scout for MCA Records for several years, and then later signed to Warner Brothers as a guitarist, I often get asked this kind of question:
Hi Juanita,
I know you’ve been in the music biz in Boston for a while and I wanted to reach out and ask for some advice. My band is from Boston and we were named local band of the week on WBCN a few times. We have had a write up in the Boston Herald and we sell out clubs in Boston and are known as one of the few drawing bands.
We have played 160+ shows touring the country and developed a really awesome fan base. We sold close to 3,000 records and have been kicking some serious ass.
We do all our own booking, managing, funding etc…
Yet we still can’t get any respect in Boston. We get radio play in other cities, lots of press in other cities and we can’t even get a nomination with the Boston Music Awards or get into rotation at any of the Boston radio stations.
Could you please offer some advice as to what we can do to further advance our career????
Dear Boston Band,
I’m happy to help. Congrats on going on tour - that’s a huge undertaking, and it sounds like it went well. I’m assuming that when you say you want to further advance your career, you want to get signed. As an A&R scout, I took several A&R reps to plenty of shows. Here’s what they said they were looking for: an amazing stage show, a singer that’s a star”, and songs that could get played on commercial radio. Other things that helped were: having a ton of really good original material (they liked to hear that you have at least 100 songs), a local buzz (good press, some radio play, CD sales, etc.) and being able to re-locate, tour, and live on next to nothing for months if not years at a time. Tough to hear, I know, but I think all of that still holds true today for the few labels who are still signing new artists.
If you want to get more specific - let me know exactly what you want when you say you want to further your career
(…I want to get signed to a popular indie, I want to go on Warped Tour, I want to win the Rumble, I want to make a living with this band for the next 10 years, I want to record an album a year, I want to sell CDs across the country, etc…) and maybe I can advise you. Different goals need different strategies.
As far as respect in this town, well - really, who cares about a Boston Music Award? Nice, but not necessary. The A&R reps never cared about that stuff. Selling out shows and selling merch - that’s where the success is - and it sounds like that is exactly what you are doing. A grassroots approach to getting your music directly to the audience has always been the way to go, and it still is.
If all band members are on the same page goal-wise, then just keep doing what you’re doing, and someone will notice - whether it be a high-powered manager, booking agent, A&R rep, lawyer, a bigger artist, etc…
If all band members do not share mutual goals, you really have to fix that first. Have that band meeting! You don’t want to put all this time and effort into your music career and have one key member de-rail it.
If you’ve sold more CDs and have more people at your shows than you did the year before, then you are doing something right. And you can plan all you want, but it is often some weird left-field opportunity that ends up being the turning point for you.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
Juanita
