Vol 3, Issue 21: The Ins & Outs of Music Videography

ANTI-HERO: Unpretty (2005)
Video is undoubtedly a powerful medium, and in the view of many entertainment critics, “the ultimate medium of the future”. From a cultural perspective, it The business point of view also points out, that perhaps one of video’s most beneficial attributes, is that it has the ability to evoke emotion, and illustrate complex meaning through imagery and representation. Finally, it allows audiences to link an artist’s work with his/her image and name. The popularity of even poor quality “home-mades” on sites, such as Youtube, once again reaffirms video’s social significance. 

As society becomes ever more encompassed in the “Digital Age”, the growing importance of video promotion, among musicians, cannot be understated. Back when I was still a rambunctious munchkin, video taping devices were known by their full name, camcorders (hard to believe, I know) and a foreign sounding version of the video tape that went by the title of “Beta”, was all the rage.

Things, suffice it to say, have changed considerably since my childhood, and instead of having to rely on film, and the mucky business of hands-on editing, digital methods have made video taping and production accessible and understandable to virtually anyone in the general populus. Accordingly, with this newfound ease of video manipulation came the novel expectation that all musicians should have promo videos as part of their professional portfolio. Lucky for all of you, turning this prospect into a reality has never been easier, or for that matter, cheaper. But just so we’re clear from the get-go, cellphone clips do NOT count, and should not be used, under any circumstances, for marketing your band. Their image quality sucks, their audio is even worst, and if you are looking to make a professional impression, well you lost me at “cellphone video.”

In terms of a starting point when it comes to making promo vids, the following things should be considered:

1) Video Type
Should you go live or traditional music video? Both versions, obviously, have their advantages, and if possible, I say do both. However, if you are restricted, for budgetary reasons, to invest in only one form, your decision should ultimately be based on your band’s career direction.

Whereas live videos have the ability to showcase your band in action, and demonstrate to potential talent buyers why your act should be booked over comparable others, music videos work to expand a band’s fanbase because of their ability to be aired on a variety of programs (both online and via mainstream media). In addition, the release of a music video often accompanies that of an album/single, making it an easy means to generate publicity for your band.

A final version of the promo video that your act may choose to undertake is that of the “on location” (ie: in the studio or on the road) or “behind the scenes” footage reel. Not only can these vids be shot for an extremely inexpensive cost (ie: usually filmed completely with handhelds), but as well, hardcore fans absolutely revel in this kind of up close and personal encounter with their favourite bands, while such videos also allow industry execs to get a taste for your personality and band dynamic. With that said however, generally this last version of the promo video is typically not released unless your band has already established a fairly substantial following.

2) Budget
Although making a flashy million dollar production would surely be quite the experience, I understand that it is not realistic for the vast majority of indie bands. You’ve got to use the resources that you have at your fingertips, and that’s why again, I recommend taking advantage of Fanshawe’s (or your local college’s) multi-talented student body.

One of my very first music videos, for an acoustic track off of one of my demos, was shot and edited by a friend of mine who was studying MultiMedia and Design Technology. Not only did I get great promotional material out of this venture, but she was also able to submit the work as a project for one of our classes; hence, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

If, for whatever reason, you are unable to find a student who is able and/or willing to assist you in making a vid, never fear as there are a variety of freelance music video makers in and around town that are indie-friendly. Checking postings on boards such as craigslist, or kijiji, and/or resources like overhear.com and mygiglist.com is definitely a good place to start.

Remember that your video’s budget should reflect your opportunities for airplay. As we learned last year, the likelihood of submitting a video to MuchMusic and achieving airplay, without a pre-existing contact, is extremely low. Therefore, your vid’s quality should be geared towards online. With this in mind, I do not recommend spending in excess of a couple thousand dollars. It’s not worth it, and because of internet compression, the extra quality that you paid for will most likely NOT even be noticeable.

It’s also important to keep in mind, that if your video requires extras, the vast majority of people are willing to volunteer.

3) Content
Last, but not least, what should your video (if a traditional music video) be about? As mentioned in my intro, video has the capacity to tell a story, and to relate your musical expression to who you are/what you’re all about as an individual act. I’ve seen far too many generic videos, from indies, strictly constituted of jam sessions in dimly lit warehouses complimented by sporadic zoom-ins and excessive head-banging. For the sake of my own personal sanity, please, do not use this plot (or lack thereof) as your video’s storyline – it’s overdone, out-dated, and does nothing to set your act apart from others. The best (and most memorable) music videos, in my view, relate directly to their song’s lyrical message; they’re emotional, and reflective, and balanced out by the perfect amount of rocking out.

With my band’s debut video, “Unpretty”, our vision was clear from the start. The song, beyond its references to the fashion industry, is essentially about overcoming obstacles, and challenging conformity. To visually promote this ethos, each of the members in my band played out a role in which they reached a breaking point, and literally were confronted with a wall they had to smash. The “breaking through to the other side” was symbolic of one achieving and expressing their genuine identity, without having social limitations imposed upon them. In the video, the plot comes to a climax when I jump on stage, and the song concludes with the crowd screaming for more.

In telling you this story, whether or not our track or accompanying storyline strikes your fancy, is not the point. Rather, I am merely trying to impress upon you the importance of taking risks, and sticking true to who you are as a band. Beyond receiving extensive worldwide airplay, our video has been nominated for numerous creative awards. I can safely say that had we gone the generic “indie rock band” video route, this certainly wouldn’t have been the case.

Vol 3, Issue 16: Starting up Your Own Label Pt #3: Getting Your Infrastructure in Order

Upon making the initial decision to create your own indie label, there will be a ton of subsequent choices you’ll need to make right from the get-go. For instance, do you want your label to represent your act solely, or in the future (once established), do you plan on reaching out to other indie artists and creating a label family of your own? Do you want to cover all of your own services such as booking, and publicity or do you want to make alliances with pre-established firms to whom you will outsource these jobs and establish a commission agreement per booking? Will your label be territory specific, and make arrangements with other indies to cover international waters, or will you claim authority over all jurisdictions? These are just a few examples of the kind of questions that you will need answers to. 

As with everything, there will be advantages and disadvantages to each arrangement you consider, but what’s important is knowing your own capabilities, and setting realistic standards. So, with that in mind, even if your eventual aspiration is to create an artist-run family of your own, similar to that of Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, you need to take it one step at a time (don’t bite off more than you can chew). Aboveall, to ensure that you maintain a strong positive reputation, and don’t burn a lot of bridges along the way, before you decide to take on the responsibility of anyone else’s career, you absolutely, 100%, need to ensure that your own shit is in order.

Selecting a Name
So, at this point, I’m sure you’re wondering, where do I begin? Well, after you’ve established your network, got your funding in order, and have drawn up a working business plan, your first order of action is to start reputation building. You need to first name your label, and then, more importantly, work on establishing your presence. For me, the name of my label was obvious – it came directly from my band’s name, and it represented the fact that if I should ever expand my enterprise to assist other artists with various management and label services, I wanted it to be clear that my goal was to work solely with women in music; hence, HER Records. For some of you, it may not be that cut and dry. But, just like with naming your band, you need to put a lot of thought into what kind of message you want to elicit, and you also need to make certain, ESPECIALLY in this case because you’re establishing an actual registered business, that you are NOT infringing on copyrighted territory. In three words, do your research!

Business Basics
Once you’ve reached consensus on your label’s name, I highly recommend applying for a GST vendor’s permit through Revenue Canada, registering your business through your lawyer and/or accountant, and opening up a business bank account at your local financial institution. Running a band sloppily is one thing, but once you’ve got a working record label, you need to make sure your files, expenses, and profits are in tip top shape for three main reasons:

1) you will have monetary obligations to others, and need to keep record of all transactions in the event of a dispute

2) it is quite possible that your business could get audited and

3) if a major label decides to pick up you or one of your other artists, they will require a record of past sales, and successes for marketing purposes.

Suffice it to say you will start feeling a bit like a baglady every time you insist on getting receipts for each purchase, but you’ll need them to be able to deduce when your business has started to profit (ie: when you will actually be able to pay back loans and/or pay yourself as an employee), and it’ll also come in handy, for tax purposes, to keep track of all of your expenses because if your bills far exceed your income, you will be taxed at a lower rate.

It is also recommended to apply for a low interest credit card as many services you may require in the future (such as reserving hotel rooms in different provinces/states for cross-country tours) can ONLY be done through valid credit card accounts.

Additionally, it will be essential to make sure that you are in good standing with the necessary Canadian artist associations, as well as royalty and sales tracking services that you will require regular use of throughout your endeavours including SOCAN, CMRRA, SAC, AFM, and Soundscan (membership, in most cases, cost money).

Finally, before you are ready to release any albums, it’s a good idea to already have working versions of your online stores in order so that all you’ll have to do is put up the product at your desired time of release, and you won’t face any potential delays with distribution. Literally, everyday the amount of places online where you can sell your music for a nominal fee are expanding, and I recommend making your label and its artists’ releases visible on as many as possible, but if your budget is limited (which I’m sure it is) the online and in store indie friendly distribution services that you’ll definitely want to take advantage of include: Indiepool, CdBaby, Tunecore, Mxyer Ringtones, & Songcast. Creating accounts with Youlicense and Pumpaudio may also be something to consider if you are interested in potentially licensing your tunes for tv, internet, and movie projects in the future.

Working the Rep
At this point forward, any communications from your band to bookers, distributors, photographers etc. should be coming from your record label NOT a member of your band. From my own experience, I’ve found that it’s best to choose a gender neutral name that is fairly unassuming such as Sam, or Vic because, as much as I hate to admit it, the vast majority of bookers, and promoters with whom you’ll be interacting are men, and they’ll naturally assume you’re a guy too; thus leading them to treat you in a more respectful manner. You should give your so called label rep a last name as well (obviously not the same as any of your band members), and you should issue “him” a title such as Head of Promotions or Lead A&R representative depending on the purpose of your communications.

To cut down on costs (long distance bills are a killer), and simply to increase efficiency, I personally recommend doing as much as possible over email/the internet – whether that’s researching potential clubs for tours, setting up appointments, booking gigs, issuing press releases, or paying for services. If you decide to pursue this route, you’ll need to set up a label email address which can easily be accomplished through one of the several different free hosting services, that are at your disposal, including hotmail, yahoo, or gmail. Make sure when you are filling out the details for your email service that you do NOT put your personal name or birthday etc. under the information section because that is something that people can check, and you want to keep everything consistent with the name of your label rep.

Along the same lines, you’ll want to change your answering machine so that it informs callers that they are reaching your label’s headquarters, as some promoters and media outlets still prefer conducting business over the phone. If you want an example of what a professional answering service should sound like, call any reputable business after hours. Generally, it will be laid out as follows:

“You’ve reached ____ Records, home of (list your artist names). None of our agents are currently available to take your call, but if you’d like to leave a message after the tone specifying your reason for calling, the appropriate department would be happy to get back to you at their earliest convenience. If you’d prefer to reach us by email, you can do so at (email address). If you require more information on ____ Records and/or one of our artists, please feel free to visit our official website located at (url).” Thanks.”

For those of you who are perceptive I’m sure you noticed the above message made mention of having an official website for your label. When you first get started, and have yet to establish an extensive roster and/or list of services, a simple Myspace or Facebook business page (if done tastefully) will suffice. Once things start heading down a more professional route, you may want to consider buying your label’s domain name and actually launching a full scale website.

As for what should be included on your website, make sure you’ve got an overview of the label’s inception, the services it provides, its affiliates, its artists (with links to their official sites), and any sponsors it may have accrued. As well, it is absolutely necessary to include visible contact information detailing your full postal address, email, phone, and fax number (where possible) as, from my experiences as a journalist I can tell you that, there is nothing more frustrating then coming across a website on a subject in which you’re really interested which fails to list the appropriate channels to initiate contact.

One final note on communications: If you can get a fax machine and/or scanner, it will be truly advantageous because some items, such as contracts need to be issued and completed within short time periods and/or are of a confidential or delicate nature for which you cannot depend on postal services. Plus which, it’ll greatly reduce the amount of money you spend on mailing, which will likely already be a large expense of yours on account of the fact that, despite services such as Sonicbids, a great deal of venues refuse to consider bands for booking and media outlets refuse to consider acts for coverage, unless they receive hard copies of your press kit.

Vol 3, Issue 15: Starting up Your Own Label Pt #2: It’s All About the Money

After you’ve assembled your army of professional business alliances (which you should endeavour to continue growing throughout your career), the next step is to get your money in order. With any business, start up capital is an absolute must as there will be many expenses, both planned and unexpected, that will pop up along the way. Considering that, aspiring musicians, rarely come fully endowed with thousands of dollars in inheritance money bestowed upon them by deceased relatives (in other words, we’re usually just barely scrapping by), learning how to budget and save up all of your pennies for rainy days, early on, is definitely a smart move. Under NO circumstances do you want to resort to taking out a loan from a financial institution as there are no guarantees in this industry (ie: though many will travel the path, few will succeed), and the interest rates alone are enough to solicit heart palpitations. Plus which, in all fairness, it’s fairly likely that you haven’t really established that great of a credit record at this point anyhow, so getting approved for a monetary advance from a bank is probably not going to happen. So, where are you gonna get the goods? 

Well, whether you’re in a collective, or you’re a solo performer, instead of boozing it up after gigs, I highly recommend reinvesting, at least some, if not all of the money you earn from your appearances, both performance fees and merch sales. If you’re not quite at the level at which you are getting paid for professional gigs, no problem, instead, to get things moving, each of you can contribute a nominal amount (say $10 – $20) into your startup fund on a weekly basis from the salaries you earn at your current menial jobs, and honestly, you’ll be surprised how fast it’ll add up. If you don’t currently have a job, go out and get one, even if just at a fast food joint, you’ll need a steady source of income coming in.

A third option you have is to, as we did, find an investor for your company, but be warned, this is not an easy venture. Just as when you approach a company for a potential sponsorship, you need to have something to offer them in return, and as much as I support your dreams of being a revolutionary rockstar, that sort of pitch doesn’t fly with business people. Investors are interested in one thing, and one thing only: that being, to maximize their returns. Sometimes, they will have a soft spot for helping out artists, however, you will still need to have a professional pitch, a profit-sharing contract worked out, as well as a contingency plan for the worst case scenario. You also need to keep in mind that if you do choose to involve an investor with your company, that it is only fair that after profits have been attained (ie: you are no longer trying to break even on your expenses), they get paid first. Afterall, they were willing to sink funds into your dream when you had nothing, and if it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t have been able to bring your baby to life.

One last note on investors: please, if you take anything away from this piece, let it be this: do NOT, and I truly mean it, do NOT involve family members. As much as they love you now (and I’m sure they do), money changes people, and relationships. Though sex has been said to be the quickest way to ruin a friendship, I’d argue that disputes over money wreak havoc way worst than anything you’ve ever seen.

The final option you have for getting together the necessary start up monies for your business is to apply, through the provincial government, for a young entrepreneur’s business loan (see http://www.cybf.ca/ for more details), however, be aware that if your loan is approved, the government, until you have paid back the loan in full, will have authority as the primary shareholder (ie: they will own a larger percentage of your company). Additionally, similar to a bank loan, you would be expected to pay back the loaned funds, plus an agreed upon interest rate, within three to five years depending on the arrangement.

So I’m sure at this point you’re wondering, well what do I need all of this money for? Though I previously explained that there will be many expenses along the way, I agree, a more specific overview of what these expenses may entail, is necessary. Tune in next week for just that!