blogbo

Some days I feel as though Bandbo is a band. This isn’t because we deal with bands daily or that Chad and I spent a collective 25 years in the music scene and that’s all we know but because the way we operate is very similar to the daily struggles many artists deal with. We view our visitors as fans rather than users, we see our content on the site as our songs and evaluate what you, our fans, “listen” to when you hit the site AND we have limited budget. By “budget” I mean $50 and by “limited” I mean we play rock, paper, scissors to see who has to hit up a relative for funds. Okay it’s not that bad, but, for the record “CHAD IT’S YOUR TURN!”.
Anyway, we have to decide what we do on our own and what do we pay someone else to do. Though it seems that we would do it all ourselves there are many aspects, similar to a band, that we would love to outsource. To make money, spend money, right?
Sites like BeatWire send your info to what seems like all the big hitters in news, Joe Black Entertainment who help develop your collateral (website, myspace, sound) or MusicSubmit that take your music and get it on all the internet music sites (itunes, reviewers, sites that make it available for download). Obviously this isn’t all of them but you get the point. These sites offer services that, yes, you could do yourself or find a friend to do, but does it hinder your main objective? If you do it, does it take away from your song-writing, if a friend does it, will it suck?
The point being, find what you can realistically do without neglecting your music, if you feel that someone you know may be able to do it but it won’t look professional then maybe consider paying someone/company. Do your research though, talk to the company about what you get SPECIFICALLY in return for your money. I don’t know how many meetings Chad and I have been to where in the middle some guy’s “sell” so to speak we looked at each other, said “thanks, but, no thanks” and peaced out (assuming the beers were on their tab). Again, ANYWAY, if you think that some companies are out to scam bands, they are. But don’t worry, they try and scam us too. But there are some upstanding companies that do offer a great service. Keep in mind the more you pay the more they help, which, in America, that’s the way it works.
Final Thought: Don’t be afraid to look into paying for help. You’ll get burned out trying to do everything while thinking your saving money. If your parents haven’t told you yet, Santa isn’t real and TIME IS MONEY!
Alright my friends, I think I need to stop writing these blogs in the morning. I’m not exactly sure if I kept a concise thought throughout even one paragraph but hopefully you get the gist of it.

Ben